


Education of an Apprentice

by All_The_Feels



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Sex, Eventual Smut, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), I Will Go Down With This Ship, Inappropriate Use of the Force, My First Work in This Fandom, Not Incest, POV Rey (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Unresolved Sexual Tension, reylo trash, they're not related
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-05-19 16:43:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5974407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/All_The_Feels/pseuds/All_The_Feels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After inadvertently creating a Force bond in The Force Awakens, Jedi-in-training Rey and Kylo Ren engage in a mental game of cat-and-mouse with each other. But what happens when missions from their respective masters place them on a collision path in real life?</p><p>*on hiatus as of 7-Jul*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Gah! I can't believe I'm writing fanfic. But, after going into TFA unspoiled, I couldn't believe the amazing onscreen chemistry between Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley. I haven't wanted to see two characters hook up so badly since the heyday of Mulder and Scully. So, now, here I am. 
> 
> I have a limited knowledge of the Star Wars EU, and I'll be pulling some of that into this story. Feel free to correct me on anything egregious.
> 
> All feedback/encouragement/constructive criticism welcome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey gets an unwanted visitor while training with Luke on Ahch-To.

_“Kill him!”_

_The whisper echoes in her head. She sees him crumpled on the ground at her feet and stalks around him, like a predator about to pounce on its wounded prey. Snow swirls around them in the dark forest. She raises her lightsaber above her head, contemplating delivering a final strike that would just end things right here and now. She pauses, unsure, and then the decision is made for her. The ground opens up between them, separating them by a widening gulf until he is safely out of her reach._

Rey awoke up with a jolt, drenched in sweat. This isn’t the first night that she’s re-lived her lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren as the Star Killer Base imploded upon itself. When the events themselves happened, Rey wasn’t sure if the voice in her head actually existed, or if the “Kill him” imperative had come from her own rage-filled subconscious. Now, though, she was positive that someone or something else had been inside of her head that night. The thought creeped her out beyond words. It had been bad enough when Kylo Ren had invaded her mind earlier that day, but the disabled and wounded Kylo lying there in the snow clearly wasn’t instructing her to end his life.

Someone else had seen their duel. That person had very clearly instructed her to kill Kylo Ren. She was sure of that now, and at the time, she had seriously considered following those orders.

Rey shuddered and stood up. She needed fresh air. Situated about 50 yards from the edge of a cliff, the hut that she was staying in on the planet Ahch-to felt stiflingly claustrophobic after having that nightmare yet again. Rey shuffled over close to the cliff’s edge that towered above the endless ocean below. Having spent the last 14 years of her life on the barren desert planet Jakku, Rey had never even seen an ocean until two months ago when her life was turned completely upside-down by the series of events that led to her joining the Resistance and traveling to this isolated island to train to become a Jedi Knight. She wrapped her arms around herself; the night air was crisp and breezy tonight and gave her sweat-soaked skin a chill.

Rey wandered over to Master Luke’s hut and peeked in; he was gone. His absence wasn’t unusual; he always seemed to be off meditating or was often somewhere within the temple’s library, researching ancient Jedi legends and artifacts. Rey was no stranger to insomnia, and from her observations, Luke did not appear to be, either.

Thinking back over the past few weeks, Rey couldn’t believe how much her life had changed. If that adorable orange and white droid BB-8 hadn’t shown up on her proverbial doorstep, she might still be trading junk parts for food rations so sparse that they barely kept her from starving. Instead, she’d found herself pulled into the galactic war of the Resistance versus the First Order and discovered that instead of simply being a nobody-desert-scavenger, she was actually Force Sensitive and could do amazing things with her mind alone. Along the way, she made her first real friend that she could ever recall having in Finn, a Stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter, started to form a makeshift family unit, and was kidnapped (and subsequently escaped from) a homicidal maniac in a mask. Oh, and there was the small little development that she was now in the possession of the lightsaber that once belonged to the legendary Luke Skywalker--a man who she had thought of as only a myth until her adventure had begun in what seemed like another lifetime.

Her thoughts drifted to Finn, the former Stormtrooper, who played a huge role in Rey leaving Jakku and meeting up with Han Solo and his wookie co-pilot, Chewbacca. After a lifetime of feeling abandoned, Finn was the first person who ever came back for her. In doing so, he risked and nearly lost his life rescuing her from Kylo Ren and the First Order. She sighed thinking of sweet, adorable Finn, who was the first real friend she’d ever felt like she had. She’d never even had a chance to thank him for rescuing her before she left to seek out Master Luke. Rey wondered when she’d see Finn again, and wondered how she’d feel when she did see him. Living in isolation on Jakku for so long, Rey wasn’t exactly experienced with male-female relationships, but there was an undeniable attraction and affection between her and Finn. Those feelings went deeper than friendship, she knew.

In contrast to her developing relationship with Finn, Rey thought back to her encounter with Kylo Ren, the monster who had kidnapped her from the forest on Takodana and taken her to the First Order’s Starkiller Base. That was actually where this whole awareness of her Force Sensitivity and Jedi training started.  When she’d awoke at Starkiller Base, she had been strapped to a chair in an interrogation room with Kylo had been squatting in a corner. She’d taunted him by calling him a “creature in a mask”, and he’d responded by removing said mask. The first few seconds after Kylo had removed his mask were the only seconds during their entire encounter when she hadn’t been terrified. She hadn’t known what she’d expected to see when he’d reached up and unfastened his mask, but she definitely wasn’t expecting the sensitive, almost kind-looking face with large brown eyes. He wasn’t conventionally handsome, but his face was quite alluring. She had to blink a few times in disbelief of who or what she was seeing.

Rey only found his face alluring for those first few seconds until he started invading her mind. Her fear and anger returned at that point. She discovered that she was not only able to block Kylo’s mind invasion; she was able to push into HIS mind where she was able to see his deepest fear and taunt him with it. After Kylo ran from the room with his tail between his legs, she’d manage to escape from her confinement by using a mind control trick that she had learned from Kylo himself, during the few seconds that she’d spent in his head. Kylo managed to track Rey and Finn down in the woods, as the base’s planet began to implode, but another amazing thing had happened; when Kylo had called for Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber that had been laying in the snow, Rey called for it as well...and it went to Rey! She’d eventually been able to channel the Force again and defeat Kylo before escaping with Finn in the Millennium Falcon.

Rey had told Master Luke the entire story about what had happened to bring her from Jakku to where she stood now on Ahch-To. His face was expressionless through most of the story, but she did sense a hint of puzzlement from Luke when she re-told the bits about her actually entering Kylo’s mind and being able to call Luke’s old lightsaber to her, just after Kylo had tried to Force pull it to him. 

“Has he tried to contact you at all since then?” Luke had asked.

“Of course not. I didn’t exactly give him my personal commlink code,” she’d replied.

Luke chose his words carefully. “Ok. Just let me know if anything changes in that respect.”

Rey plopped down on a rock at the cliff’s edge and absentmindedly started to fidget with a handful of pebbles that she picked up from the ground beside her. She dangled her legs off the rock, swinging them back and forth. She tossed one pebble off the cliff, waiting to hear it land in the water below several seconds later. 

Plunk!

She’d estimated that the cliff was roughly 50 meters above the water. Out of curiosity, she wondered if this might be a good opportunity to practice the levitation exercises that she had been working on with Master Luke. She took another pebble in hand and focused on it for a minute before tossing it over the edge. Concentrating on the pebble as it falls, Rey was able to slow its descent, stopping it completely so that it actually hovered above the surface of the ocean for a few minutes before Rey released it and let it drop into the water below.

Plunk!

She repeated this action a few more time. For a second, she felt like there was another, unknown presence nearby, which was ridiculous because Ahch-To was tiny, and she and Luke were alone here. Cautiously, she twisted her neck one way and then the other to fully survey her surroundings. As expected, she saw no one. All of this isolation must be making her paranoid. Rey then stood up and walked back to her hut, hoping that she’d be able to get a few more hours of sleep before the sun rose, signalling the start of her next day of training with Luke.

 

***

_Plunk!_

_The restless dreams of Kylo Ren’s sleep have been interrupted. He now sits at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean on an unknown planet. He inhales and breathes in the scent of the ocean while his legs dangle out in front of him….except that Kylo Ren realizes that the legs that he’s looking at aren’t his own. The athletic, curved calf muscles lead to slender ankles and then to feet that are considerably smaller than Kylo’s._

_The person whose eyes he’s seeing through picks up another pebble, tossing it off the cliff. This time, however, the pebble descends slowly, as if something were guiding its fall._

 

_Kylo begins to wake and quickly becomes aware of what he is viewing._

 

_The pebble stops and hovers above the ocean’s surface for a moment, before being released by its Force cradle and dropping into the water._

 

_Kylo sits up in his bed, eyes wide open now._

  
_Plunk!_


	2. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Luke head back to the Resistance base on D'Qar in preparation for their upcoming journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this is the last "setting up the chess board" chapter for a while. We'll actually start moving those pieces around in Chapter 3.

Rey spent her morning in meditation, as she often had since coming to Ahch-To. This time, she’s levitating a rock roughly the size of her head. The rock hangs about two meters in the air, hovering about one meter in front of her. It’s not the most glamorous use of her Force powers, but Rey understood that this is all part of her Jedi training. Master Luke has done this before, she knows, so he must know what he’s doing. 

She’d asked Luke yesterday when she’d be able to move on to more interesting and challenging things. She was particularly interested in learning some of the mind tricks that Kylo Ren had used on her. Like, how was it possible that with a wave of his hand, he was able to render her unconscious? Or, how was he able to go into a person’s mind and sort through what was there and pull out specific information, or at least come close to doing that? Rey had occasionally been able to read a passing thought from Luke’s mind, but she wouldn’t have known where to start with an interrogation-style mind reading. Granted, she guessed that she had sort of done that right back to Kylo, as she was strapped in the chair in his interrogation room, but she’d only managed to do that in a state of heightened adrenaline, mimicking what she’d felt Kylo do, but right back at him. On a whole other level, he’d even thrown her into a tree during their last fight. She’d manage to hurl some rocks and sticks (mostly when Master Luke wasn’t around), but it was a pretty big stretch to go from tossing rocks to hurling a full-grown human being, especially with the distance he’d managed to get on that throw!

When Rey had asked Luke about why she was still only meditating and levitating things, Luke had assured her that she needed to really get the basics down first before she could move on to more advanced things. He had been concerned about her ability to calm herself and detach herself from her emotions.  Sometimes, Rey thought that he was just stalling with her training, though. He’d given her volumes of books about Jedi history and the Jedi code to read when she wasn’t actively training or meditating. While Rey actually really enjoyed learning about the history of the Jedi Order,, nowhere in the books did it sound like Jedi training involved much in the way of academia.

“Master Luke, with all due respect, why am I getting so many reading assignments, as opposed to actual practical training?” Rey had asked.

His answer was one of the few times that Rey felt like he had opened up to her. “Rey, I failed miserably the last time that I tried training a new group of Jedi. I’m trying something different this time, hoping to avoid the mistakes of the past so that we get a better outcome this time. I am hoping that if we both have a better understanding of the ups and downs of the Jedi, you won’t fall prey to some of the same things that my past students did.” Luke sighed, “Please, have patience with me, and understand that to a certain extent, I’m making this up as I go.” 

Rey knew what Luke was talking about without having to press further. When he was a young man, Ben Solo had been an apprentice of Luke, but something went wrong. Ben had turned to the Dark Side of the force, and there was a massacre of Luke’s students, and Ben had abandoned his old identity to become Kylo Ren and serve the First Order.

Rey’s mind focused back on the rock currently levitating in front of her. She’s had enough thinking about Kylo Ren for now.

 

_ Still levitating rocks, eh? _

 

Rey is jolted from her meditative state and gasps as she hears  _ his _ voice, clearly in her mind. The levitating rock drops to the ground with a “thud”.

She scrambled to her feet and looked around. She’d heard a man’s voice; she knew it. Maybe she wasn’t being paranoid last night when she could have sworn that someone else was here. However, when she looks around, she doesn’t see anyone else. Is she going insane? She knows what she heard.

 

_ What a pity. It looks like you’ve chosen the wrong teacher. _

 

The voice spoke again. Rey was fairly confident that she had some understanding of what was going on now, and it both terrified and angered her. Kylo Ren had somehow bridged whatever distance was between them to get at her.

 

“Get. Out. Of. My. Head!” she stated firmly.

 

Rather than go back to meditating, Rey decided to do something to keep her mind otherwise occupied and off of Kylo Ren, so she started gathering kindling and firewood for the campfire that she and Luke would have later that night. She knew that she should tell Luke about what had just happened, but she was hesitant to do so and couldn’t understand why. She was positive that it was Kylo Ren who had contacted her, but had he really done anything that warranted raising a red flag? She was training to be a Jedi; surely she could deal with the occasional taunt from an adversary.

 

***

 

“Rey, start to pack up your things. Chewie is on his way to pick us up. He should be here in a few hours.” Luke approached Rey as she was arranging her fire kindling.

 

“What? Why? We’re leaving?” she asked.

 

“Change in plans. We’re heading to your base at D’Qar for a few days, and then you and I will be heading out on a bit of an expedition of sorts. We’ll be continuing your training while we’re on the move,” Luke explained.

 

“What sort of expedition?”

 

“An archeological expedition of sorts, and a bit of a history lesson for you.”

 

Rey grinned. “Ooh, so applied learning of all of the things that I’ve been reading about?”

 

“That’s pretty much the idea.  I also want to see and study a few things for myself. We’ll be visiting temples and studying a handful of ancient Jedi artifacts and...other things.”

 

“That sounds fantastic! Why now, as opposed to waiting for me to finish my training?”

 

Luke paused for a moment, measuring his words. “I’ve sensed...changes in the Force as of late, which compel me to expedite my research in these matters. I want us to be fully armed, from a mental standpoint, when we face the challenges that I suspect lie ahead of us.”

 

“You mean with Kylo Ren?”

 

“Yes. Among other things.” 

 

Rey frowned. She knew that she’d have to face Kylo Ren again but wanted to put it off as long as possible. While him popping into her brain on occasion was a nuisance, she didn’t perceive it to be a real threat by any means, she didn’t particularly want to face the actual physical version of Kylo Ren any time soon, and certainly not while on an expedited or truncated training schedule.

Luke sensed her apprehension. “Rey, I don’t believe that anything is imminent--at least nothing that I can sense, but I do want us to be prepared when one or both of us does have to face him.”

Rey nodded and headed to her hut to pack up the few belongings that she had brought to Ahch-To.

 

***

“Finn! I missed you!”  Rey raced down the ramp of the Millennium Falcon and threw her arms around her friend who was waiting for her on the landing deck of the Resistance base at D’Qar. Finn is standing with his pilot friend Poe, the droid BB-8, and General Leia Organa.

Finn embraced her. “I’ve missed you, too. We’ve all missed you.”

Rey planted a kiss on Finn’s cheek and stepped back. “I can’t believe that after all of this time, I’ll only be able to see you for one night, but I’m sure we’ll be back soon.” She paused, thinking of how the last time she had seen Finn, he was lying in a coma in a medbay because Kylo Ren had nearly killed him with a lightsaber hit to the back. ”How’s your back doing?” 

“It’s better. Still not 100%, but I’ve started back doing light training again.”

Rey then noticed that Master Luke, in a rare show of emotion, was tightly hugging his sister Leia. Rey knew that they hadn’t seen each other in years--not since Luke lost Ben Solo as a student, when Ben turned to the dark side and became Kylo Ren. Rey didn’t really get a chance to know Leia during her previous, brief stay on D’Qar, but she couldn’t imagine what Leia was going through--the love of her life, her husband, having recently been killed by their own son.

After Luke and Leia parted, Leia approached Rey and gently hugged her. “Welcome back, Rey.” Leia then addressed both Luke and Rey, “Let’s get both of you inside. Luke tells me that unfortunately, you won’t be sticking around for too long.”

 

***

The group filed into an empty conference room so that Luke and Rey could be de-briefed on what the Resistance had been doing during the two months that they’d been away. Rey and Finn quickly grabbed seats next to each other at the conference table. 

General Organa spent the next two hours lecturing on First Order movements and other intelligence received by the Resistance spies. Rey tried really, really hard to pay attention, but she was having a rough time of it, sitting so close to Finn when she hadn’t seen him in two months. To make matters worse, Finn kept rubbing his foot against her foot and ankle. Rey was unused to this type of flirtation, but happy that she seemed to be on Finn’s mind as much in her absence as he’d been on hers. They apparently weren’t being subtle because at one point, Rey caught Master Luke’s glance; he had been watching her with raised eyebrows. She blushed, knowing that given Luke’s adherence to the Jedi code, she should be avoiding romantic attachments. Well, how attached could they get, though, if she was only here for one night?

The meeting finally ended, and Rey instinctively grabbed Finn’s hand as everyone shuffled out of the room. 

“I think we’re done with official business for the rest of the day. Would you like to go get some dinner?” Finn asked her.

 

“Absolutely. I’m starving,” Rey smiled.

 

Luke caught up to the duo and placed a hand on Rey’s shoulder. “Before you go to dinner, we need to take a short detour to the medbay.”

 

“I feel fine, Master Luke.”

 

“That’s good. But we need to get a new round of immunizations. We’ll be traveling to some fairly remote regions, and the last thing that either of us needs is to come down with a swamp cough.”

 

“We wouldn’t want that,” Finn responded. He addressed Rey, “Go ahead. I’ll wait for you outside of the cafeteria.”

 

“See you soon!” Rey planted another kiss on Finn’s cheek and headed over to the medbay with Luke.

 

***

 

The nurse at the medbay saw Luke first. Rey sat in a chair and fidgeted nervously thinking about Finn. Was tonight going to be a real, actual date? If so, it would be Rey’s first. She’d occasionally managed to get her hands on secondhand holobooks and holovids back on Jakku, which she’d read and watch avidly. Through these holobooks and holovids, Rey learned that under normal circumstances, when a man and a woman were attracted to each other, they’d go on “dates,” and if a date went well, there would be kissing...or even something more involved...at the end of said date. She wondered--she hoped--that there would be kissing with Finn later tonight. She fantasized about his hands wandering...was there a point where she’d stop him? On one hand, she’d never even experienced anything remotely like a romantic kiss before, so she was a bit nervous about that. On the other hand, between her mission with Luke and Finn’s work with the Resistance, who knew when they’d see each other again? What if the unthinkable happened, and they never saw each other again? In that moment, Rey decided that if she had the opportunity, she’d give Finn something to remember her by.

 

“Rey?” The nurse peeked around the curtain and summoned her back to the exam room.

 

“Luke gave me the list prepare you for your trip. We’ll start off with the dual immunization for Dagobah Smallpox and swamp cough.” The nurse cleaned a spot on Rey’s arm with rubbing alcohol and then administered the vaccine with a syringe.

 

“Next up, we have Mynock Fever…”

 

Rey’s attention drifted. She lost count of the number of shots that she’d received--it had to be at least ten. They really must be traveling to some nasty regions of the galaxy.

 

“Okay...we’re almost done here. I just need you to rotate your arm so that I can insert your implant under the skin of your inner arm.”

 

“Implant, what’s that for?”

 

“Your contraceptive implant.”

 

“Oh, okay.” OH! Rey felt herself blush again. Luke must have caught onto the vibes between her and Finn. Even though Luke probably didn’t want her getting seriously involved with Finn, per the Jedi code, he obviously recognized that the two of them were only human and wanted to make sure that Rey was properly protected. 

Rey held her arm out to the nurse, who quickly implanted the tiny device just under the skin of Rey’s forearm. “Ouch,” she said. It stung just for a second.

“And that’s effective immediately and will last for up to 10 years, unless you have it removed before then.”

  
“Thanks!” Rey hopped down off of the exam table with a grin. Maybe she’d even get a chance to break in that implant tonight, she thought mischievously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The concept of the "contraceptive implant" was shamelessly stolen from several other fanfics on this site. We don't want Rey to potentially have to deal with morning sickness when she's got a galaxy to restore order to, do we?


	3. Blocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey's intimate evening with Finn doesn't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now the fun (I hope) begins. I've had the idea for the scene that makes up the second part of this chapter in my head for a while--I hope it's as fun to read as it was to write.

Rey and Finn walked along a moonlit path that wound around the buildings on the Resistance base. Tentatively, she took Finn’s hand.

 

“You know,” Finn grinned, “the last time that _I_ tried to take _your_ hand, you wouldn’t let me.”

“I know,” Rey said softly. “A lot has changed since then.”

The couple stopped walking and turned to face each other.

“Promise me that you’ll stay safe while you’re out running around with Poe?” Rey asked. 

“I will. No more lightsaber hits to the back. I promise.” Finn looked into Rey’s eyes as he made his promise. “And you, you need to take care of yourself while you’re running around with Luke.” 

“Of course I will.” She gazed back into Finn’s eyes with a smile. 

“Try not to be tempted by the Dark side or anything while you’re gone.” Finn slowly leaned his face in towards Rey’s.

“Why would I be tempted by the Dark side when I have everything I could ever want right here?” Rey closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly.

 

Rey felt Finn’s lips softly press into hers. Finn’s tongue tentatively made his way into her mouth to meet hers. Rey placed one hand on Finn’s shoulder, pulling him closer to her, then let that hand creep up Finn’s neck to his head. She ran her hand over the short, coarse curls on the back of his head. She was finally participating in her first real kiss, and it was with a wonderful man that she cared about. Rey’s mind briefly wandered back to when she was strapped to Kylo Ren’s interrogation table; how he’d been hovering over her, his face close enough for her to feel his breath. There had even been a few seconds there where Rey had thought that Kylo was contemplating kissing her, and she’d remembered wondering at the time if her first kiss was actually going to come under those dubious circumstances. But, enough thinking about that while she was in Finn’s arms and had his tongue in her mouth.

Almost immediately, a searing pain pierced Rey’s head. She winced and recoiled.

 

“Rey?” Finn pulled back with concern. 

“I don’t know what that was.” She smiled at him and with her hand that was still caressing the back of his head, pulled his face back in towards hers again.

Their lips had only been touching again for a few seconds when the pain ricocheted through her skull again. This time, though, the pain was accompanied by a voice in her head.

 

_Really, Scavenger? The traitor? Perhaps my opinion of you was too high._

 

_Go away!_

 

_I am not going to enable you in being pawed by that traitor._

 

To emphasize his point, Kylo Ren sent another shock of pain to Rey’s head.

“Rey? Are you okay?” Finn’s arms flew off of Rey’s body. 

She nodded. “I’m fine. Really.”

“You’re distracted.”

 

_I swear, if you ruin this for me…_

 

_You’ll do what? Tell Luke? I’m sure that he’d be thrilled to hear that you’re spending your off-hours sucking face with your ex-stormtrooper buddy._

 

_Why is this of any concern to you?_

 

_He’s beneath you._

 

_Your opinion has been noted. Can you please leave now?_

 

Rey concentrated and tried to push him out of her head and close the connection.

Finn interrupted her. “Rey, seriously, are you okay?”

 

“I’m fine, really. I’ve just got a little bit of a headache.”

“We don’t have to do this now if you’re not feeling well.”

 

“I feel fi---   Oof!” Using another shock of pain, Kylo Ren made it perfectly clear that Rey had not successfully ejected him from her mind.

“Look, you’ve got a big day tomorrow, and you need to get some rest. I’ll walk you back to your room.”

Defeated, Rey took Finn up on his offer. Although she could still feel his presence, Kylo remained silent as Finn escorted her to her room in the barracks. Finn walked her to her door and deposited a chaste kiss on Rey’s lips. 

“Good night. I hope you’re able to get some sleep and feel better tomorrow.”

“Thanks. _Headache_ aside,” she emphasized the word “headache”, “I had a nice time tonight. Maybe I’ll be able to catch you in the morning before I leave?”

“I hope so. Maybe I’ll catch you at breakfast in the morning.”

“Breakfast would be great. Good night, Finn.”  She threw her arms around him and gave him one last hug for the night before retreating into her room. As soon as the door clicked shut, Rey felt Kylo leave.

She then flopped on her bed, buried her face in a pillow, and screamed.

 

***

Rey was livid. She couldn’t believe that asshat had invaded her mind during her only night that she’d have with Finn. He had ruined everything. She laid on top of her bed and seethed for several hours, not even bothering to pull up the blankets, even though it was quite chilly in the barracks room. Sleep was completely out of the question at this point. Just thinking about Kylo Ren enraged Rey...to the point where she realized that she was no longer mentally in her barracks room.

 

_Rey was back in the interrogation room on Starkiller Base. A masked, unconscious Kylo Ren was strapped to the interrogation table. Instead of crouching in a corner, like he had done with her, Rey stood over Kylo, hovering, while she waited for him to wake up._

_Within minutes, Kylo begins to stir and quickly realizes that he’s in restraints. He moves his masked head from side to side in an attempt to survey the room and says, “The first time that you manage to enter my dreams, and this is what you come up with? I’m impressed.”_

_“I thought that you might like it.” Rey purred as she prowled around him. She glared into his masked face._

_“I’d remove my mask for you, but…” Kylo wriggled his gloved fingers to emphasize that his wrists were in restraints._

_“Allow me,” Rey sneered. She searched for a moment before finding the buttons for removing the faceplate. She pressed them, and the faceplate detached with a hiss. Rey lifted the faceplate and examined the face that she had just uncovered. This was the first time that she’d seen his face since their last duel._

_At first glance, his face was mostly unchanged. He had a new pink scar that ran diagonally across his face, courtesy of a lightsaber blow from Rey. Beyond that, he still had the same deep brown eyes, sensuous lips, and a crown of near-black wavy hair that framed his face. However, upon closer examination, his face appeared more gaunt, and he had dark circles under his eyes. Rey suspected that Snoke and the rest of the First Order leadership had not treated him kindly in his failure to secure the map that Rey had ultimately used to locate Luke Skywalker._

_Kylo blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the light in the room._

_“Better?” Rey asked._

_“Isn’t that what I should be asking you?”_

_Rey ignored the comment. The memory of him invading her personal space when she was restrained in the interrogation chair came flooding back to her._

_Again, she hovered over him, with her faces inches away from his. She’s so close to his face that she can smell his sweat and a hint of musk on his skin._

_And then...she felt herself being drawn in again, like she had been for those few seconds the first time that she’d seen him remove his mask. Ugh! What was wrong with her? She couldn’t forget that he was a monster._

_To Rey’s frustration, he looked slightly bemused with his situation, instead of looking intimidated or even the slightest bit frightened, like she had hoped. “This needs to stop,” she states firmly._

_Ignoring her, Kylo closed his eyes for a moment, then re-opened them, stating “You changed your clothes.”_

_Rey stepped back and looked down. The standard-issue Resistance uniform that she had been wearing on-base had been changed to a fitted v-neck tunic over black leggings. Her arm wrappings were now black, as well._

_“They become you,” he added._

_“Adorable,” she smiled sarcastically at Kylo, trying to hide how flustered she’d just become._

_“The Padawan braid is a nice touch,” he smirked, then changed the subject. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought that you were off training with Luke, but then when I checked in on you earlier, you’re swapping spit with your traitor friend. I’d ask if Luke has already given up on your Jedi training, but I see that your braid is still intact.”_

_Rey didn’t see the harm in answering him. “We’re just back here for supplies and refueling, then Luke and I are heading back out again.”_

_“Back to the island?”_

_“Nope. Special mission. And we’ll be continuing my training on said mission.”_

_“Really? And what’s the mission.”_

_“That’s classified.” Rey hovered over his face again, trying to regain the feeling of control that she’d previously had before Kylo had mentally knocked her off-balance. She paused, looking into his eyes and him looking into hers. Their gazes remained locked for a moment before Kylo finally spoke._

_“You can do a lot better than that traitor FN-2187.”_

_“Oh, you think so?”_

_He changed the subject. “What does Luke think about all of this? You know, with how Jedi are supposed to avoid romantic attachments and and all that.”_

_Rey stepped back and shrugged. “He hasn’t really pushed the Jedi Code all that hard.”_

_“From what I’ve been seeing, between your little stormtrooper and the situation that you’ve got with me right now, I’d say that you’re off to a splendid start.”_

_“You’re one to talk.”_

_“At least I’m honest with myself. I’m not sure that you’re really cut out to be a Jedi any more than I was.”_

_The rage flared on Rey’s face again. “At least I don’t MURDER people.”_

_“No, you just shoot at them in the woods with a blaster. We’re done here.”_

_“Suit yourself. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been enjoying our conversation. By the way, if you’d like to do something more advanced than levitate rocks for another two months, my offer still stands."_

 

_Rey knew better than to do what she did next, but found herself blurting out “Tell me how you’re able to get into my head when you’re...wherever you are now.”_

_Kylo laughed. “I think you can figure that out.”_

_“Some teacher you are.”_

_“Look, what you did tonight...actually inserting yourself into and influencing my dream? That’s a lot more difficult than sending a quick message to someone with an open connection. Figure out what you did to get in here, and I promise you, you’ll be able to easily torment my waking hours as well.”_

_“But…”_

_“Goodnight, little Padawan. I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon.”  Kylo leaned forward against his restraints, and Rey could feel him pushing her out of his head._

 

When Rey opened her eyes, she was sitting on her bed in the barracks of the Resistance. Her heart was racing with both excitement and fear over the encounter she’d just had.

She decided to try one last thing before trying to calm down enough to get to sleep. She sat on her bed in a meditative pose and focused on Kylo. She envisioned his face and and imagined him lying on a bed...wherever he was with the First Order right now. She started getting a set of blurry images from his mind coming into focus. 

 

_Good job, Padawan. Now, try to get some sleep._

  
A second later, Rey was bounced from Kylo Ren’s mind again.


	4. Dagobah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Rey take a little side trip to Dagobah and pay a visit to the planet's most (in)famous(?) attraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's your first little teaser, kids. Hope you like it!

Luke and Rey left in the Millennium Falcon the next morning. Rey had managed to catch Finn and share breakfast with him and Poe, but the whole encounter felt awkward. 

“Are you ready, Rey?” Luke asked, as they stood at the bottom of the ramp into the Falcon.

Rey took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m ready.”

She hugged General Organa, Chewbacca, BB-8, Poe, and Finn. “I’ll miss you,” she said to all of them, but her eyes were focused on Finn when she said the words.

“We’ll see each other again soon. I promise.” Finn kissed her on the forehead.

Minutes later, the Falcon was rising from the ground with Rey at the main controls and Luke in the co-pilot seat.

“Where to?” she asked. Luke had been cryptic about their destinations. Rey hadn’t pushed the issue in the case that her knowing their itinerary in advance would put them at risk of being intercepted by Kylo Ren. It was better not to know, she figured. She trusted Luke and was willing to go along with whatever his plan was.

“The Dagobah System,” Luke replied.

“Dagobah?” Rey asked. “I wouldn’t think that there would be much in the way of Jedi temples or artifacts there.”

“No, there aren’t any temples there. However, much of my Jedi training took place on Dagobah. I consider a brief stopover there to be an important stepping stone for your own training.”

“How long will we be staying?”

“Not long. If all goes as planned, we won’t be there for more than a few days.”

***

Later that evening, Luke and Rey were setting up camp inside of an abandoned home that had been made in the hollow of a giant gnarlwood tree at the edge of a swamp. “Swamp” was the definitive adjective for everything on Dagobah, it seemed. Rey had been shocked as she brought the Falcon in for a landing several hours earlier.

“Master Luke? I don’t see where we can land. The entire planet appears to be a giant swamp!”

Luke had chuckled at the comment. “Let the Force guide you. There ARE clearings here large enough to land a ship our size. There aren’t many, but they do exist.”

Rey slowed the Falcon to a slow cruise over the trees on the planet’s surface. She inhaled and tried to apply as many elements of her Jedi training meditation as she could to call on the Force for guidance in landing the ship. Without realizing it, she had closed her eyes and was guiding the Falcon down to a soft landing on a mossy outcropping of land.

“Great job, Rey!”

Rey beamed. Master Luke typically gave praise very sparingly.

For now, though, Luke was getting a fire going in the pit located inside of the little house where they were huddled. 

“I can’t believe anyone actually lived here.” Rey stirred a bowl of dehydrated ration powder--similar to the portions that she used to eat on Jakku.

“This home used to belong to the Jedi Master Yoda. He lived here for many years in exile after…” he paused “...Darth Vader destroyed the Jedi Order, around the time that I was born.”

“You can’t really get much more exiled than this. Why this place?” Rey swatted a blood-sucking insect that had landed on her arm.

“The Force is very strong on this planet. Can you feel it?”

“Is that why I was able to land the Falcon with my eyes literally closed?”

“That played a big part in it.” Luke poked the growing fire. “With its strength in the Force, Dagobah is considered one of the purest places in the galaxy.”

By morning, Rey concluded that Luke must be right about the purity of this place. She’d slept soundly and without any strange or disturbing dreams for the first time in several weeks.

***

Luke and Rey ate a light breakfast of re-hydrated protein that morning before exiting the hut where they had spent the night.

“Come, Rey. Our destination awaits.”

Rey frowned and looked back at the pile of supplies scattered around the floor of the hut. “What should we bring with us?”

“That’s up to you,” Luke replied. 

“How long will we be gone?”

“That’s also up to you.”

Luke certainly was in full enigma mode today. Rey shrugged and gathered up her canteen, a couple of protein packets, and her lightsaber--Luke’s old blue lightsaber.

They hiked through mud, under gnarltree branches, and over moss-covered tree roots for about an hour. Finally, they stopped at a giant gnarltree that to Rey, didn’t look any different from the thousands of other gnarlwood trees that they had already passed.

“This is it,” Luke said.

“What is it?” Rey asked.

“It’s a cave.” Luke pulled back a few low-hanging tree branches to reveal the cave’s entrance. 

Rey felt that he wasn’t being very helpful in explaining what they were doing there. “What’s in there?” she queried.

“Only what you take with you,” Luke answered. He continued,”You’ll be going in there alone. I cannot accompany you. This is  _ your _ journey, Rey.”

Rey paused, her hand automatically going to the lightsaber hitched to her belt. “Will I need this?”

“That’s for you to decide.”

Trying to figure this out was like trying to decode a puzzle. On one hand, if Rey would be better off armed, wouldn’t Luke tell her that? On the other hand, she thought as she peered into the tree-cave, it was awfully dark in there, and her lightsaber could provide a light source. No! Yes! That was it; it  _ was _ a trick question. Luke wanted her to go in there unarmed and to let the Force guide her. That had to be it.

Rey handed the lightsaber to Luke, who took the weapon and nodded in acknowledgement. She pulled back the branches concealing the entrance and entered the cave.

***

The cave was warmer than Rey had expected, contrasting with the cool, perpetually damp weather outside. She took a few steps into the interior and found that her eyes adjusted quickly to the dim lighting, although she did note that the further she walked into the cave, the darker the surrounding atmosphere became.

She inhaled then exhaled slowly, trying to adapt a form of meditation to this situation. Remembering her plan from a few minutes ago, Rey would let the Force guide her to whatever it was that she was supposed to see or experience in here.

The energy of the Force was strong within the cave; Rey had no trouble finding it. The energy here felt different than what she was used to, though. Instead of peace and calm, the cave’s energy was downright frenetic. Even with her measured breathing, Rey felt her heartbeat quicken as everything she sensed was amplified. She wondered if this is what she’d feel like if she’d downed two full pots of caf in a single sitting. Still, she let this weird Force energy guide her deeper and deeper into the cave, as if she was being led by an invisible rope. 

The cave seemed to go on forever. How large was this tree, anyway? At this point, she surmised, the cave had to go beyond the tree and must be a set of interconnected corridors. 

As she continued to follow the path the the Force led her along, she thought that she sensed the presence of another person in the cave with her.

“Luke?” she called out.

No one responded. She cautiously shuffled further into the cave. The Force led her around a corner, or at least, that’s what she thought it was doing from feeling the walls. She stopped, feeling the presence again.  

“Is someone there?” she asked, not really expecting an answer. 

Rey took a few more steps forward, but was halted by the feeling of someone’s breath on the back of her neck. Goosebumps emerged on the bare skin of her arms. The presence must have sensed this because it immediately ran glove-clad hand up her arm, from her wrist to her shoulder, where his hand remained.

Rey stopped, petrified.  _ “No, no, no! What was he doing here?” _ she thought, trying not to panic.

Kylo Ren’s other hand firmly clamped onto her other shoulder, and he pulled her back towards his chest. She felt his lips softly kiss the side of her neck, and she flinched. She wanted to run, but her feet wouldn’t obey the command from her brain. For a moment, she’d wondered if he had manage to Force freeze her, like he had on Takodana but then realized that her inability to move was all her own. His kisses continued, working their way from her neck down to her shoulder, then down to her exposed collarbone. She could feel the soft waves of his hair brush against her cheek; in this vision, or dream, or whatever it was, he wasn’t wearing his mask or helmet. Finally, Rey worked up the strength to try to take a step away from him, but when she made her move, Kylo kept his firm grasp on her arm and wheeled her around so that she was facing him. He shifted his grip so that one hand was now on her upper arm and the other was on her waist. As if in a dance, he gently led her to take two steps backward.. Rey anticipated that he was backing her up to one of the walls of the cave, at this point, the cave spun. When the rotation stopped, they were no longer in a cave, but in a brightly lit room filled with instrumentation. Perhaps they were now on a ship or at a base somewhere. He continued to guide her backwards until her back was pressed into the wall of the control room or wherever it was that they were. She could see his face clearly now; seductive brown eyes and full lips in all of their glory, the scar from their previous encounter marking her territory across his face. Rey’s head began to buzz. Why did someone so horrible have to look so good? 

He removed his hand from her arm and cupped it under her chin. Their gazes locked. Every ounce of logic in her head screamed to run away, but she felt helpless to resist the urges that were overcoming her. Was this the Force’s doing? 

As he lowered his face to hers, she closed her eyes and parted her lips in anticipation. When his lips met hers, she felt her body...melt for a lack of better word. The fear that she had felt just seconds ago was replaced with another emotion--desire. Rey placed one hand on the back of his head, running her fingers through Kylo’s soft, wavy hair. Their kiss intensified; tongues meeting each other and even occasionally knocking teeth. Kylo’s hand drifted from her waist down to her ass, which he squeezed gently. Rey responded by running the inside of her knee up and down the outside of his leg. They paused their kiss just long enough for their lips to separate and for Rey and Kylo to look each other in the eye again for just a few seconds until his mouth was back on hers again with a heightened intensity. For the next few minutes, they were all hands, and lips, and tongues. Rey felt her arousal growing and she hated herself for it--both for the fact that she felt anything at all and that she felt powerless to pull away and stop this. 

Kylo dropped his face and was concentrating on her neck with lots of biting and sucking. With the hand that he had on her ass, Kylo pulled Rey closer to him, and she now felt that he was as aroused as she was. She had learned a bit about the male anatomy from her holovids and holobooks, but she had never actually felt an erection before. The feeling both excited and frightened her, and she was tempted to run one of her hands down his chest to get a better feel for it. The attention of his free hand was now directed to her hair, and he was furiously trying to loosen the ties that held her hair in the three-bun style that she always wore. Soon, her hair was free and tumbling over her shoulders. He combed through her hair with one hand and brushed it back over one ear.

Kylo leaned down and whispered words in her ear that made Rey shudder. “You’ll never be alone again.”

The cave spun again, and Rey found herself alone again. A hot and bothered mess, she stumbled her way back to the entrance of the cave.

***

Outside of the cave entrance, the sun had reached its mid-day position, surprising Rey with how long she had been inside. Luke was outside waiting for her, sitting on a flat rock and meditating.

Rey couldn’t contain how shaken up she was by her encounter. “Why would you bring me here?” she spat. “Why would you show THAT to me?!?”

Luke stood up and put his arm around Rey in a comforting gesture. “I don’t know what you saw in there, but now I can tell you that that cave has an unusual concentration of dark energy.” 

He stopped and looked Rey over. She suddenly felt self-conscious about how disheveled she must have appeared.

Luke continued, “I won’t press you as to what you saw unless you want to talk about it. Just remember that whatever you saw  or experienced, it’s just one possible outcome to temptation from the Dark side.”

“What did you see when you went in there back when you were in training?” she asked.

“I saw my own death. As a new version of Darth Vader. So that clearly hasn’t happened.”

Rey felt slightly better, but she still had more questions that she didn’t want to ask Luke than she had answers. The duo walked back to their camp in Yoda’s gnarlwood tree in silence.


	5. Ponderings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Luke head to Yavin 4; Kylo mysteriously seems to have too much time on his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last setup chapter before the plot really starts to get going.

On the walk back to camp, Rey couldn’t shake the feeling that Kylo Ren had had something to do with what had happened back in the cave. Wouldn’t that sort of antic be the perfect payback for when she had inserted herself into his dream the other night? By the time that she and Luke reached Yoda’s gnarlwood tree, she was convinced that her cave vision and experience were a direct result of Kylo’s manipulation. She didn’t know if she was more angry with him or with herself for allowing herself to be suckered in to whatever game he was playing. 

Once they’d reached camp, Rey decided to try to contact him again, under the pretense that she was heading outside to meditate. Finding him took a bit longer this time than it had the last time, and something felt “off” to her almost as soon as she began to prod him.

_ So that little stunt that you pulled in the cave was fun. _

_ Huh? This isn’t a good time right now. _

His voice lacked the usual confidence that it typically contained when he was goading her. He sounded stressed. Rey dismissed this observation and continued to needle him.

_ Tell me how you did it. You said that you wanted to teach me. _

_ Did what? I don’t know what you’re talking about. And seriously, this isn’t a good time. _

A shot of pain rang through Rey’s body, as if she were being shocked. Did Kylo do that?

_ No, I did not do that. You need to go. Now. Before Snoke figures out that you’re here. _

_ Are you okay? What’s going on? _

_ I’ll talk to you later. Just go. _

He slammed the connection shut. 

Whatever was going on at his end clearly wasn’t good. Rey wasn’t sure whether she should feel concerned for him (but why would she feel concern for that monster?) or be angry that their stupid game of one-upmanship had robbed her of a training milestone that Luke had deemed important enough for them to travel way out of their way to Dagobah for her to experience.

***

Rey and Luke settled into their respective bedrolls for the night. The two grown adults take up much of the floor space of Yoda’s tiny house. Unable to settle her mind, Rey tossed and turned for what felt like hours. 

Finally, Luke spoke up, “Rey, we’ve got a long travel day ahead of us tomorrow. You need to settle down and get some sleep. I promise you--whatever you saw...whatever happened in the cave earlier today, it’s not inevitable.”

“I know. It was just so real…” her voice trailed off. 

She wondered if she should ask Luke if it would be possible for someone to manipulate her cave vision. But if she asked about that, then that would be opening the whole can of worms about how she’d been mentally in contact with Kylo this entire time, which she wasn’t ready to do yet. Even worse, she’d told Luke back on Ahch-To that she’d tell him if Kylo ever contacted her, and clearly she’d failed to do that. Besides, after her brief exchange with Kylo this afternoon, she was slightly less confident that the cave debacle was his doing. Better to not drag Luke into this until she had a better idea of what was going on. 

Restlessly, Rey replayed and reflected on the events that unfolded in the cave earlier that day. Looking at it logically, Rey had cycled through a whole host of emotions associated with the Dark side of the force: fear when she had initially sensed Kylo’s presence, followed by those ridiculous waves of passion, lust, and desire, all appearing to point towards a sort of physical union with her nemesis. Was the vision simply a warning of what could happen if she couldn’t keep her emotions in check, or did it show her inevitable future  _ because _ she couldn’t keep her emotions in check? Or was it something less black-and-white, in that in the right situation, she could embrace those emotions without fear of falling all of the way to the Dark side? It could have been worse--Luke foresaw his own death; Rey simply got hot and heavy with someone who she had this bizarre connection with and who she considered to be an enemy. 

She rested her head on the wadded up jacket that she was using as a makeshift pillow and concentrated on her breathing, trying to relax enough to finally make her way to sleep, which does manage to come eventually.

  
  


_ “So is this the cave that you were talking about?” Kylo Ren sits in front of her, unmasked, with his knees drawn up to his chest. Even with Luke’s presence missing from her dream, the tiny house still made for cramped quarters for Kylo’s tall frame. _

_ “No, this is just where we’ve stayed for the past few nights. The cave isn’t far from here.” Rey sat up in her bedroll. She notices that Kylo has dark circles under his eyes and generally looks like hell. His voice is much calmer than it usually is and is lacking the usual arrogance that’s typically present when he taunts her. _

_ Kylo hunches over and pressed his hand up to the ceiling of the dwelling. “You certainly chose a charming place for temporary shelter.” _

_ Rey shrugs. “It was convenient. According to Luke, this is where Master Yoda lived during the years that he was in exile. I’m sure you remember that Luke trained with him?” _

_ Kylo’s eyes grew wide. “So you’re on Dagobah?” _

_ Rey rolled her eyes. “For now. We’re leaving in a few hours, so don’t get any ideas.” _

_ “It’s really cramped in here. I’m moving us,” he states. _

_ Before Rey can protest, the scene shifts, and they’re both sitting...on the bed in his quarters? He’s propped up at the head, against his pillow and the wall, watching her intently. She’s sitting at the foot, feeling self-conscious that she’s only wearing the lightweight tunic that she typically sleeps in and her underwear. Rey panics for a split second before remembering and reassuring herself that this is all just her dream, and that she can bounce him out at a second’s notice, if necessary.  _

_ Her eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the light. “These are your quarters?” she asks. _

_ Kylo nods, not taking his eyes off of her. His face and tone darken--that snarky edge is back. “What happened to your neck? Was that a send-off gift from the traitor?” _

_ “What?” Her fingers touch the side of her neck. She flies off the bed and over to a mirror hanging on the wall. Plain as day, she has two bright purple hickeys on her neck where Cave Kylo had been sucking and biting earlier that day. She turns to him defiantly. “No, you made sure that didn’t happen.” _

_ “Where’d you get that then? Since I last saw you, it’s been just you and Luke…” Rage flashes on his face. _

_ “Luke? Ugh, Force no.”  _

_ “Those are what I think they are, though, aren’t they?” _

_ “Not that it’s any of your business, but it happened in the cave, okay?” She sits back down on the edge of the bed. _

_ “The cave on Dagobah? The one with the Force visions that Luke used to always talk about?” Kylo asks in disbelief. _

_ “Yes.” _

_ “A Force vision gave you a hickey?” _

_ “Apparently. Honestly, I didn’t even know that it was there until you pointed it out.” _

_ “But you remember it happening.” A smirk forms on his face that just moments ago was filled with rage. _

_ Rey thinks back to her initial suspicions--that he had somehow manipulated her experience in the cave. Now she’s the one who’s enraged. “You DID have something to do with this!  You did find a way to get in there somehow!” _

_ Kylo stifles a laugh. “No, I swear I didn’t. But now I want to hear more about this vision.” He places a hand on her upper arm. “It sounds...interesting.” _

_ Rey turns around, glares at him, and pushes him out of her dream. _

The next morning, as Rey and Luke packed up their things, Rey stole a moment with a piece of cookware that had a reflective coating and examined her neck. There’s no sign of what transpired in the cave yesterday, and she started to wonder if she was losing her mind.

_ *** _

Luke and Rey spent the next few days entering and leaving different hyperspace channels as they traveled to Yavin 4 in the Outer Rim Territories. 

“What’s on Yavin 4,” Rey asked.

“A history lesson that I think you’ll find particularly useful,” was all that Luke would tell her.

Mid-way through day 3, Rey started feeling stir-crazy with cabin fever from being confined to the Millennium Falcon for so long. She couldn’t remember being confined to such small quarters for any length of time before in her life, outside of a handful of particularly nasty sandstorms on Jakku that confined her to her AT-AT home for days at a time. Following Luke’s lead, Rey passed the time by meditating and reading holobooks. 

Kylo Ren apparently also had too much time on his hands, as Rey had to constantly try to block him from getting into her head. He had been relentless with his needling since their dream encounter during Rey’s last night on Dagobah. She had a strong suspicion that he’d had at least some idea what had happened in the cave there, even if he didn’t know the specifics.

_ Scavenger, I just realized that you went further with your Force Vision than you have with an actual human being! _

And

_ Tell me more about your Force Vision. Was it tall, dark, and handsome? _

And

_ You know, a lot of times, those Force Visions come true. _

Rey did her best to block him out or at least ignore him. She concentrated on reciting parts of the Jedi Code to herself:

_ There is no emotion, there is peace. _

_ There is no passion, there is serenity. _

_ You keep telling yourself that _ , was Kylo’s response.

Rey felt her frustration increasing.  _ Don’t you have anything better to do? _

_ Not really _ , came the response.

On the second day, Luke took mercy on her and started to introduce her to the various lightsaber combat forms. As they ran through the various forms, Rey reflected back on her one experience in lightsaber combat--her duel in the snowy forest on Starkiller Base with Kylo Ren. Slowly, she came to a shocking realization that she blurted out to Luke.

“He wasn’t trying to kill me on Starkiller, was he?” she asked.

“No Rey, I don’t think he was.”

“He had multiple chances where he could have killed me, but he didn’t. And I’m also starting to realize how...untrained I was when I faced him. Not to mention that he was hurt pretty badly...”

“That’s in the past, Rey. Let’s get back to focusing on your forms.”

“Luke, why do you think he let me live?”

_ You’re a smart girl. I think you can figure that one out. _

“I can’t pretend to know Kylo Ren’s agenda. I think it would be best for you to just let it go and not dwell on it.”

  
Rey felt like that was easier said than done, given that he seemed to constantly be in her head these past few days. She wondered what would happen when they eventually inevitably met in person again. Would he attack her? If she was with Luke, would he attack Luke? And if Luke wasn’t nearby, did she have any chance of beating an uninjured Kylo Ren on her own?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I promise we've got a face-to-face meeting in the next chapter. Please let me know if you like how this story is going! I'll be bringing in more plot elements from the EU going forward.


	6. The Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo Ren find out that they share a similar goal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's following--sorry about the break in posting. Life happened. You know how that is. Hopefully, things will be less crazy from here on out. I'm hoping to post once or twice a week for the remaining chapters.

The rest of the journey went uneventfully, outside of the nagging suspicion that Rey had that wherever Kylo Ren was at the moment, he was physically closer to her than he had been a few days ago. He had refrained from taunting her and had stayed out of her dreams (to the best of her knowledge), so Rey assumed that he must be busy with whatever business was bringing him to this general region of the galaxy. She did frequently notice him skimming around the outskirts of her mind, but as long as she kept her guard up, and he kept to himself, she ignored it. She didn’t have the energy to completely block him out at all times if he was always going to be hanging around in there, plus, she wanted to focus on her upcoming task with Luke.

 

“So this is the famous Yavin 4?” Rey asked as the Millennium Falcon skimmed over tree tops as she guided the ship towards the landing coordinates that Luke had given her.

 

“It is, indeed,” Luke replied.

 

“I know that there’s a famous Jedi temple here. Is that where we’re heading?”

 

“Just the opposite. We’re heading to a rather infamous Sith Temple--the Temple of Exar Kun*.”

 

“A Sith Temple? Why?”

 

“There’s an artifact that should be located inside that I’m interested in studying.”

 

Rey frowned. “What are we going to do with a Sith artifact?”

 

“We’re not going to  _ do _ anything with it, but I am hoping that it might be able to shed some light on the current situation with Kylo Ren, including your part in that situation.” Luke carefully chose his words.

 

Rey bit her lip, wondering how much Luke had picked up on regarding her “relationship” with Kylo. Whereas with Kylo, Rey was usually aware of when he was in her head, sometimes she thought that Luke may have been in her head, but she was never cognisant of it until after the fact. She decided to cautiously offer Luke an admission that she had previously kept from him. 

 

“Master Luke, sometimes I can feel Kylo Ren--I assume it’s through the Force--even though he’s not physically here.”

 

Luke nodded. “I was aware of that. I wish that you had told me earlier, but thank you for being forthright now.” He paused. “Does he ever try to engage you?”

 

Rey figured that she might as well come clean. “Yes, he does talk to me sometimes.”

 

“And what sort of things does he say to you?”

 

She shrugged. “Mostly he just teases me. I think he’s just trying to get under my skin.”

 

“Are you able to communicate back with him?”

 

“Yes,” Rey replied. “I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. It hasn’t really seemed like a big deal. It’s more annoying than malicious.”

 

“Rey, I don’t want you to be alarmed, but whatever connection you have with Kylo Ren...it’s not a typical connection between two Force Sensitive people. I’m not sure of the exact nature of your connection, but it’s something that we need to investigate to figure out the best plan going forward.”

 

Rey sighed. She was afraid that something like this was going on. She could sense Luke and even had sometimes sensed Leia through the Force when they were physically close, but her mental communication between Luke and Leia just wasn’t even close to the same level as her communication with Kylo. 

 

Changing the subject back to her original question, Rey asked, “So what is it that we’re going to be mucking around in a Sith temple for?”

 

Luke grinned, or at least it was the closest that Luke typically came to grinning. “In your studies, have you come across the story of Darth Revan and Bastila?”

 

Rey shook her head--she wasn’t familiar with the story.

 

“I’ll give you an abridged history legend, then. Many, many years ago, Darth Revan was an extremely strong Jedi who fell to the Dark Side of the Force. As a masked Sith, he committed a lot of atrocities, and not surprisingly, was considered an enemy of the Jedi Order at that time. Eventually, Revan was betrayed by his apprentice. His life was saved when Bastila, a Jedi, created a Force Bond with Revan, and with his recovery and suppression of his memories, Bastila was able to bring Revan back to the Light side of the Force. Revan and Bastila became lovers, and Revan was eventually able to save Bastila when she temporarily succumbed to the Dark Side. Their connection--the Force Bond played a large role in their lives. We’re going to be looking for Revan’s mask, which according to my research, ended up somewhere within the temple of Exar Kun.”

 

Rey’s stomach flip-flopped. “Is this your way of telling me that I have one of these ‘Force Bond’ things with Kylo Ren?”

 

“It’s a possibility that I want to explore. Usually, Force Bonds are created between masters and apprentices or in near-death experiences--like Revan’s, but they can occasionally be created under other circumstances. I’ll be frank with you--with some of what you’ve told me about your connection with Ben...er, Kylo, I do think that it’s possible that you two have a Force Bond.”

 

Rey felt a lump rise in her throat, remembering when Kylo had told her “You need a teacher!” during their lightsaber duel...and then his various offers to teach her since then. She tried to retain her optimism, though. “But you say that a Force Bond isn’t particularly common, right?”

 

“No, they’re not common. I’m hoping we’ll be able to rule one out for you and Kylo.”

 

“That’s a relief. What does Revan’s mask look like?”

 

“From the sketches I’ve seen, it honestly looks an awful lot like Kylo Ren’s mask,” Luke replied. “So, just look for a mask that looks like Kylo’s--we’ll try to let the Force lead us to it.”

 

“That sounds pretty straightforward.”

 

“It should be. One thing, though--from what I’ve read, the chamber that houses the mask is booby trapped. We can examine the mask and listen to whatever it’s going to tell us, but we absolutely cannot take the mask with us. It must not leave the chamber where we find it.”

 

“Mask can’t leave the room. Got it.”

 

***

 

Rey set the Millennium Falcon down in a clearing of trees just a short walk from the temple of Exar Kun. The temple itself was located on an island in a lake. Oddly, the only way to reach the temple was on foot; the Sith who built the temple had set up a path of stepping stones just below the surface of the lake so that anyone who approached the temple would need to do so with his or her head bowed. 

 

Luke and Rey were about two-thirds of the way across the lake when Rey stopped and gasped. She’d felt a tug on her connection with Kylo that was so strong it was almost like a yank.

 

“Luke!” Rey called to the Jedi Master, who was several steps ahead of her. “He’s here somewhere. I’m sure of it. I can feel him.”

 

Luke turned around. “I can feel him now, too. Just concentrate on getting across the lake for now. If he shows up once we’re across, we’ll deal with him then.”

 

“Okay.” Rey didn’t love Luke’s answer, but she suspected there was nothing else she could do. 

 

“Rey,” Luke reassured her, “We’re in Sith territory right now. There are a lot of reasons why he might be in the area. We’ll try to camouflage our Force signatures once we get to shore, and hopefully we can avoid a confrontation that way.”

 

Just a few steps from shore, Rey projected a thought without realizing that she had done so. 

 

_ Where ARE you? _

 

The response came immediately and jarred Rey so hard that she nearly slipped off of the stepping stone.

 

_ Right here, Scavenger. Watch those last few steps to the island, by the way. _

 

She stopped and looked around. He was clearly watching her, but she couldn’t see him. If she couldn’t see him, there was only one place that he could be.

 

“Luke! I think he’s in the Temple,” she called to Luke.

 

“Then we’ll be ready for him.”

 

_ See you in a few minutes. I’ll be waiting for you.  _

 

The voice in her head sent a chill down Rey’s spine. As she stepped onto the shore where Luke was waiting, she asked, “Now what?”

 

“We wait.” Luke gestured to Rey, indicating that she should halt.

 

Rey tried to calm her breathing. A cold wind blew across the island, and for the first time since her and Luke’s arrival, she noticed that the sky was beginning to darken. As apprehensive as she was about facing Kylo in person for the first time since Starkiller Base, Rey knew that she had Luke with her in support this time. The odds were much more in her favor this time around. Her hand moved to the hilt of her lightsaber (really, Luke’s old lightsaber) that was clipped to her belt.

 

As if on cue, two tall, armored figures emerged from the entrance to the temple. Both wore masks and carried weapons, but neither was Kylo Ren.

 

“Remember that time that you asked me about the Knights of Ren?” Luke asked.

 

Rey nodded.

 

“Well, there are two of them.”

 

Rey and Luke both took their lightsabers in hand and ignited them as the Knights approached. “Where’s Kylo Ren?” Luke called to them.

 

_ I told you that I was waiting for you. _

 

“He’s still in the temple,” Rey responded.

 

The two Knights ignored Rey and both marched purposefully towards Luke as if they had been instructed to do so.

 

“I can handle these two,” Luke stated. “Rey, go find Kylo Ren. And if he’s after the mask, do NOT let him leave the chamber with it.”

 

“I can’t leave you here.”

 

“I’ll be fine,” Luke said, as the first Knight’s weapon clashed with Luke’s saber on the first strike. “Go!”

 

Rey ducked and ran into the temple entrance.

 

***

 

The interior of the temple was dimly lit with torchlight. Rey cautiously entered the main chamber but couldn’t see any sign of Kylo. A disturbing thought entered her mind. What if the two Knights that Luke was fighting was just the tip of the iceberg?

 

_ How many other Knights are with you? _

 

_ It’s just us now. _

 

Rey felt only slightly relieved. She wouldn’t need to be fighting off additional Knights, but she was nervous about facing an uninjured Kylo Ren alone while Luke battled with the two Knights outside. 

 

Kylo spoke again first through their connection.

 

_ What are a Jedi and a Padawan doing snooping around a Sith Temple, anyway? I should point out that my party and I were here first. _

 

Rey surveyed the main chamber. Four passageways led off of the main chamber. She tried to feel through the Force where Revan’s mask and Kylo were located. As far as she could tell, both were located off the passageway to the far right. She extinguished her lightsaber and continued to try to calm herself through the Force and made her way through the passageway.

Kylo Ren’s presence within the passageway was extremely strong. Rey knew that he was in here somewhere even if she couldn’t see or hear him yet. She felt like she was being stalked like an animal. Then she felt it--his breath on the back of her neck. He was right behind her. She froze as she flashed back to her encounter in the Dagobah cave with the Force vision version of Kylo.

 

“In all honesty, we didn’t expect to encounter you here.” His voice sounded mechanical; Rey could tell that he was wearing his mask.

 

Rey steadied her voice before speaking. “We came here to learn more about an artifact. Let us study it, and then we’ll leave. Neither Luke nor I wish to fight you.” She wheeled around to face him. In the dim light of the passage, she could barely make out his cloaked and masked figure as he towered over her. Instinctively, she gripped her lightsaber hilt.

 

“You’re here for the mask as well?” he asked.

 

“Yes.” Rey saw no point in being deceptive. “Why are you interested in it?”

 

“Supreme Leader Snoke sent us to retrieve it. Why are YOU interested in it?”

 

“Master Luke was hoping that it could shed light on a theory that he has.” Rey didn’t see any reason to mention the Force Bond that Luke suspected could be possibly be in place between her and Kylo.

 

Without a word, Kylo strode down the passageway. Rey followed after him wondering what his plan was and trying to ready herself for whatever might be waiting for her. 

 

The passage opened into a small chamber, lit by torches lining the walls. Looking out of place with the rest of the chamber, a small dais covered by furs and tapestries rose out of the center of the chamber. The walls contained a series of small alcoves that were too dark to reveal their contents.

 

Kylo stopped in front of one of the alcoves in the walls. The base of the alcove started just above the height of Rey’s waist and its width wasn’t much larger than Rey’s shoulders. The opening was maybe about a half metre high, at most.

 

“It’s in there,” Kylo said.

 

Rey looked at the size of the alcove and the size of Kylo Ren and filled in the blanks. “And you can’t reach it.”

 

“No. I can’t even fit my shoulders through that hole.”

 

“And you couldn’t Force pull it from there?”

 

“My Force powers feel diminished in this room. I was unable to call the mask.”

 

Rey lit her lightsaber. Kylo jumped back.

 

“I’m just trying to get a better look.”

 

She waved the saber around within the entrance to the alcove, making sure that something sinister wasn’t waiting down the dark hole. She could see something reflecting off of the light of her weapon. She turned the saber off and returned it to her side. She reached out her hand and tried her own Force pull, willing the object in the alcove to come to her. Concentrating on the image that Luke had mentally painted for her, she tried calling the mask to her. Nothing happened.

 

“I told you that wouldn’t work,” stated Kylo. He continued, “If you help me retrieve the mask, I promise that no harm will come to you.”

 

“Why should I trust you?”

 

“I may be a lot of things that you despise, but I’ve never lied to you.”

 

Rey thought for a moment, really wishing that Luke would get here already. Even in a 2-on-1 faceoff, she figured that he’d have no trouble taking down the two Knights of Ren outside, or at least hoped that would be the case. She stared at the hole that she’d be climbing into.

 

“So this is why you sicced your two Knights on Luke--because you knew that you needed my help in getting the mask. I could just stand here and wait for Luke to finish with them, and then  _ you’d _ be outnumbered.”

 

“You could. And I could also render you unconscious right now and take you back to my ship, if you would prefer that instead of us working together.”

 

Rey crossed her arms and glanced into the tiny, dark hole. “Okay, I’ll get it.” 

 

She scooted into the hole. The tunnel leading from the opening was so small that she had to crawl on her belly and arms, army-style, to make her way down the tunnel. 

 

The mask wasn’t much further in than a body-length for Rey and she reached it after a few minutes of uncomfortable crawling. 

 

“Got it!” she exclaimed, clutching the artifact.

 

Scooting her way back out proved to be more difficult than making her way into the tunnel for Rey. She grunted, her elbows becoming raw as the scraped the stone surface of the tunnel. A few inches later, she felt a pair of hands grasping her feet.

 

“I can help you out now,” Kylo told her, starting to pull her by her feet.

 

“OW!” Rey yelped as she felt the skin being scraped from her arms.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“Just a sec.” Rey wriggled her way onto her back. She crossed her arms and lifted her head and shoulders off the surface of the tunnel. “Okay, now pull.”

 

Rey felt Kylo’s hands around her calves, then thighs, then waist, as she was pulled from the tunnel. She emerged to find Kylo Ren’s still-masked face just inches above her own, reminding her that the last time he’d been this close to her, she’d been strapped into his interrogation chair.

 

“I’ve got the mask,” she said softly, gesturing with the metal relic in her hand.

 

Kylo took the mask from her and examined it. For the first time, Rey was able to see the details of the mask in the torchlight of the room.

 

“Wow, it really does look like yours,” she gasped.

 

Kylo gave her a look behind his own mask that Rey could only assume was a glare.

 

“Thank you for your help,” he stated. “And as promised, I will leave you unharmed.”  Kylo strode across the chamber.

 

“Wait! You won’t even let Luke or I take a look at it even after I helped you out?”

 

“I have no desire to engage with Luke, at this time, if I can avoid it.” He was almost at the entrance of the chamber.

 

“Wait!” Rey pleaded again. “Luke said that the mask can’t leave the chamber--”

 

Kylo was at the chamber entrance.  As he crossed the threshold, a solid duracrete wall came crashing down from the ceiling in front of Kylo, missing his head by inches.

 

“...because it’s booby-trapped,” Rey finished. “Are you alright?” she asked.

  
Kylo Ren nodded. He and Rey both stared at the wall in front of them that was now apparently sealing them into the chamber where they stood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trapped together! Dun. Dun. Dun! How ever will Rey and Kylo make it out of this one?


	7. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo Ren try to decipher an ancient Sith clue in hopes that it will lead them to an escape from the chamber where they are currently trapped.

Rey spoke first. 

 

“You idiot!” she screamed. 

 

“It’s not my fault!” Kylo Ren snapped in response.

 

Rey fell against the door with her hands, trying to feel for anything that might indicate a way to open or lift the large duracrete slab that was now imprisoning her and Kylo in the chamber. Not finding anything, she began to bang on it with her fists.

 

“Calm down,” he ordered, staring at the door. Rey could tell that he was attempting to use the Force to move the slab out of the way. She calmed herself for her own meditation and tried to help out with her still largely unhoned Force skills. They stood that way for several minutes, but the slab didn’t budge.

 

“Stand back,” Kylo instructed, igniting his lightsaber. He slashed at the slab several times, but his blade didn’t even leave a mark. In frustration, he removed his mask and heaved it across the chamber, nearly hitting Rey in the face.

 

“Hey, watch it!” She scowled.

 

Kylo mumbled something unintelligible under his breath then turned to Rey and firmly stated, “There has to be a way out of here. We will find it.”

 

“We will find it,” Rey added, “Because there is no way in Hades that I am dying while imprisoned in a room alone with you.”

 

Kylo turned and glared at Rey. For a second, she was thrown off-balance; this was the first time that she had seen his face in person since their duel on Starkiller Base. She’d forgotten about that intense gaze of his. By extension, this was also the first time that she had seen the scar that now branded his face as a result of Rey giving into her anger when she defeated him. Recovering from her shock, Rey glared back at him.

 

He ran his hands over the slab. “Scavenger, can you bring one of those torches over here? I think there’s some writing on the slab.”

 

Rey rolled her eyes at being called “Scavenger” again, and begrudgingly plucked one of the torches from its holster on the wall and brought it over to the slab. There was, indeed, writing on the slab, but it was in a language that Rey didn’t recognize.

 

“I can’t read it.”

 

“That’s because it’s written in Sith.” Kylo passed the torch over the foreign words. He frowned.

 

“What’s wrong?” Rey asked.

 

“I apparently should have studied up more on Revan and Bastila before coming here.”

 

“Can you just tell me what it says?”

 

“ _ Join as Revan and Bastila to gain freedom with the mask _ ,” Kylo stated. “At least, that’s pretty close to what it says. Some Sith words don’t have direct translations.”

 

Oh no, thought Rey. There was no way that it could mean what she was thinking that it might mean. She felt her face turn bright red and the bottom drop out of her stomach.

 

“Rey?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“But you apparently know something more about Revan and Bastila than I do, and whatever you know caused you to look like you’ve seen a ghost. I know that Revan was a powerful Sith lord who eventually turned to the light. I don’t recall who Bastila was.”

 

“She was Revan’s lover,” Rey murmured. 

 

“Oh. Ohhhhh…”  A devilish grin spread across his face.

 

Rey buried her face in her hands. “I’m sure that’s not what it means…  I mean, maybe you translated it incorrectly?”

 

Kylo put his arm around Rey’s shoulders. “I’m quite sure that my translation is pretty accurate,” he said softly. “Don’t be afraid.” Gently, he steered her so that her back was against the slab, and she was facing him. He placed one hand against the slab, over her shoulder, and gazed at her.

 

Her eyes locked onto his eyes. Those eyes...those eyes that, in another lifetime, would have had her removing her clothing with just a glance, but in this lifetime, meant nothing but confusion and conflicting feelings.

 

“Rey…” he lowered his face to hers.

 

She raised her chin and parted her lips. She knew that she shouldn’t be feeling tempted like this. 

 

“Rey, you’re going to make a terrible Jedi,” he whispered to her.

 

“Why?” She asked, the word barely audible.

 

“Because it’s far too easy to get under your skin.” He dropped his hand from the wall, laughed, and stepped away from her. “You’ll never have the control of your emotions required to be a Jedi, and frankly, stifling your emotions doesn’t suit you,” he smirked.

 

Rey felt humiliated instead of relieved. She decided to get them back on track for the task at hand. “We need to come up with a plan to get out of here.”

 

“Beyond us screwing each others’ brains out and hoping that that invokes some sort of Force command that moves the slab out of the way?”

 

“I’m sure that’s not what it means. I mean, that’s a bit of a reach, even for the Sith.”

 

Kylo shrugged, still smirking. “If you say so, being the Sith expert that you are and everything.”

 

Rey wandered over to the dais in the middle of the chamber and sat down. She pulled the messenger sack over her shoulder and dropped it onto the platform where she sat. “I’ve got a canteen full of fresh water and several days worth of ration bars in my bag. That should buy us a couple of days time. Do you have anything with you?”

 

He shook his head. “This was supposed to be a quick grab-and-go mission. I certainly wasn’t expecting to run into you here, let alone get trapped with you.”

 

“Do you even have any sort of a container to collect our urine, if we end up needing to drink it?”

 

Kylo grimaced. “No. That’s disgusting. We will get out of here before it comes to that.”

 

“And if we don’t, I guess we can re-use the canteen at that point…”

 

Kylo sat down next to Rey on the dais, not quite touching her. “So tell me more about Revan and Bastila. I assume that there’s more to their story beyond being lovers? Something that we can use to get out of here?” He tossed the Revan mask into the air and caught it

 

“What Luke told me is that Revan was a former Jedi who turned to the Dark Side and became a powerful Sith lord. Bastila was a Jedi, and she used a combination of a Force Bond and a memory wipe to both save Revan’s life and to pull him back to the Light side. They became lovers, and he actually ended up saving her, after she was tortured into falling to the Dark Side. Eventually, they even got married.” Rey thought for a moment. “This seems like a very strange relic for Snoke to have sent you after.”

“From what I knew of the story, I couldn’t figure out why he wanted it. I figured it had something to do with him preventing me to be called by the Light.” He sighed. “But now I’m wondering if he sent me after it just to keep it away from you and Luke. Why were you after it?”

 

“Luke was going to try to figure out the nature of the connection that you and I have.”

 

“We have a Force Bond. Luke really couldn’t tell? The old man really must be out of practice.”

 

“I may not have told him very much about the connection,” Rey admitted. “He knew you were in my head at times, but I kind of glossed over a lot of the details.”

 

“Same with Snoke. I’m sure that he’s at least somewhat aware of it, but I figured that the less he knew about it, the better.”

 

“How in the world did we end up creating a Force Bond?” Rey muttered, staring at her feet as they dangled off the dais.

 

“They’re usually created between a master and student,” Kylo explained. “The best I can figure is that it got created when you were in my head plucking out that mind control trick that you used on the stormtrooper guard and whatever else you grabbed while you were in there. The Force picked up on it, and Boom--we’ve got a Force Bond.”

 

“How do we undo it?”

 

“You can’t. From what I’ve read, a Force Bond can only be broken by death. And before you get any ideas about killing me, a broken Force Bond is supposed to result in horrific feelings of emptiness for the surviving party.”

 

“So we’re stuck with each other?” Rey swung her legs nervously.

 

“Looks like it.” 

 

“Obviously, I don’t know much about Force Bonds, but do you think that maybe it’s something that we could use to get out of here?”

 

“I don’t know how that would work, but it’s worth a try.”

 

“Maybe we can try meditating together and focusing together on moving the slab?” Rey proposed. “And if there’s something that I’m not doing right, you can coach me.”

 

Rey pulled her legs up onto the dais and folded them into her usual meditation position. Kylo did the same, accidentally knocking his long legs into Rey in the process.

 

They both began to meditate. Only a few minutes later, Kylo was mentally poking at her.

 

_ You need to drop your barriers. We can’t freely communicate when you’ve got everything packed away and compartmentalized. _

 

Rey hesitated. There were things in there that he absolutely did not need to see. She dropped a few barriers around incidents from her lonely childhood on Jakku, figuring that he already knew about those. Rather than just hanging out around the edges, she started prodding around in Kylo’s memories since she knew that he was now doing the same to her. While she shouldn’t have been surprised, the amount of pain and anger that she found just under the surface was jarring. Visions of years of regular torture at Snoke’s hands came flooding into her mind.

 

_ I draw strength from my pain.  _ Kylo told her once he recognized her presence.

 

_ Should we start focusing on trying to move the slab now? _ She asked.

 

_ Might as well. _

 

With Kylo very present in her mind, Rey concentrated on moving the slab. She felt for the way that Kylo was trying to move it--raising it back up into its housing just enough that she and Kylo would be able to slip under it. She pictured the slab moving and holding, occasionally opening her eyes to peek on its status.

 

The slab hadn’t moved.

 

In a chamber with no windows, Rey had no idea how much time had passed while they had tried to move the slab through Force Bond meditation, but it felt like  _ something _ should have happened by now.

 

“It’s not moving,” she stated, sounding defeated. “So the Force Bond is a bust.”

 

“Got any other suggestions?”

 

“According to the holovids that I used to occasionally get my hands on, now is apparently the time when you pull a hidden flask of Corellian whiskey out of your coat, and we play the ‘I Never’ drinking game.” Rey tried to make a joke to lighten the mood.

 

Kylo snorted. “Yeah, you playing a drinking game. You’d be passed out within the hour.”

 

“Really? You and I both know that you’d be drinking way more than me.”

 

“I’ve never kissed a traitor,” he sneered.

 

“Oh please! Give it a rest! You’re acting like a jealous boyfriend.” 

 

“You don’t understand,” he sighed in frustration. “I thought that you, of all people, would understand, but clearly you don’t.”

 

Rey didn’t know how to respond to his comment, so she didn’t say anything. Instead, she swung her legs back and forth from the edge of the dais, shaking the platform as she did.

 

Kylo grabbed her wrist. “Hop off of here for a second. I want to check something.”

 

They both hopped down off the platform. He placed his hands on the edge and leaned forward with his weight.

 

“There’s a little bit of give in how this thing is anchored to the floor,” he stated.

 

“So?”

 

“I don’t have a delicate way to put this, but maybe all we need to do is to rock this thing to mimic certain...other activities as a way of triggering the slab to open. Maybe there’s some sort of sensor here that can detect movement.”

 

It took Rey a second to realize what Kylo was getting at. “Oh! Yes, we should try that.”

 

She joined Kylo in trying to rock the table, as Kylo barked out somewhat condescending suggestions to Rey.

 

“No, don’t just shake it like that.”

 

And:

 

“Try to join the rhythm that I’m using.”

 

And finally:

 

“Wow, you really don’t get how this works, do you?”

 

At which point Rey dropped her hands from the edge of the dais and placed them on her hips. “You’re right. No, I haven’t ever done anything like this before. Jakku wasn’t exactly awash in relationship options. Plus, I had that whole survival thing to worry about.”

 

“Relax. I wasn’t passing judgment. Look, this doesn’t seem to be working.” He stood up straight and stared at the platform. As Rey was noticing that he had been starting to sweat, Kylo removed his cowl and gloves.

 

“Maybe something is off with the weight distribution. Can you climb up on top of it?” With a sweep of his arm, he knocked the furs and tapestries that still sat on the dais to the floor. Along with them, Revan’s mask clanged to the floor.

 

Rey did as she was instructed, sitting in the middle of the dais. He grabbed the edge of the dais again, leaned forward and frowned. 

 

“I’m going to move you closer to the edge here.” He grabbed her ankles and slid her forward so that her legs were largely dangling off the edge. Using his hands to brace himself, he leaned in toward the platform, this time rocking it in a slow, methodical rhythm. 

 

For the second time today, Kylo Ren’s face was inches from Rey’s. And this time they were simulating a sex act, while fully clothed. Rey couldn’t help snickering at the absurdity of what they were doing. 

 

“What’s so funny?” He asked.

 

“This. This whole situation is ridiculous.”

 

“You’ve got no argument from me on that.”

 

His “thrusts” towards the table became harder and more deliberate. Out of instinct and to steady herself, Rey draped an arm over Kylo’s shoulder and around the back of his neck. Against her better judgment, she met his gaze. He was looking at her with those bedroom eyes again. That was the moment that she realized that if she did make it out of this chamber alive, there was no way that she was getting out of there at least a little unscathed.

 

“You’re projecting your thoughts again,” Kylo whispered. He gave the dais a particularly hard shove.

 

Rey blushed. She tried to ignore the fact that she was actually starting to feel aroused, in spite of the ridiculousness of their situation.  

 

“What would you have done if I had accepted your offer to teach me back on Starkiller Base?” she asked softly.

 

His breathing was getting heavy. “Honestly? It was an impulsive offer. Not that I wouldn’t have followed through, but I didn’t exactly have a plan at the time.”

 

“Would you have brought me to Snoke? Would I have been your prisoner?”

 

“Not unless we had gotten caught trying to leave. Then I wouldn’t really have had a choice.”

 

“Where would you have taken me?” She began to run her fingers through the hair on the back of his head.

 

“Somewhere where neither the First Order or Resistance would have been looking for us?”

 

“Why me? I mean, why would you want to run off with me? You had just met me.”

 

“Forces, Rey.” He grunted. His rhythm with the platform was becoming more erratic. “For someone as smart as you are, you can be really thick at times.” He pushed hard into the platform one last time. “Because I’d never met anyone like you before...someone even remotely like me. I hated the thought of possibly never seeing you again.”

 

Kylo let go of the table and slumped to the floor, his back resting against the side of the dais. Rey stroked his hair.

  
“Well, that didn’t work,” he sighed. “Can you hand me the canteen? I guess we’ll need to come up with another plan to get out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all of the comments so far, everyone! They're a huge form of encouragement.


	8. Still Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren and Rey find ways to pass the time while still continuing to figure out how to escape the chamber where they are currently trapped.

Rey wasn’t sure how long she’d been trapped in the chamber with Kylo Ren, but she knew that it had to have been quite a few hours at this point. She wondered if Master Luke had any idea what had happened to the two of them; she could faintly feel his Force signature somewhere nearby, so at least he hadn’t assumed that they were dead and left them. With Luke still hanging around, Rey figured that the two Knights of Ren that Kylo had flown in with were probably either dead or hostages. That led Rey to having the disturbing thought that maybe the reason that she’d consistently been faintly feeling Luke’s Force signature was that  _ he _ was possibly a hostage and that Kylo’s Knights were just waiting around to add Rey to their prisoner haul to deliver the both of them to Snoke. Rey wanted to think that after making it through their current ordeal, assuming that they did find a way to escape, that Kylo wouldn’t just hand her over to Snoke like that. 

Kylo had been mostly silent since their last failed attempt to move the slab through their completely embarrassing episode involving simulated dry humping on the dais in the middle of the room. He still sat on the floor with his back against the side of the platform. Rey was now laying down on her back on top of the dais, staring at the ceiling and occasionally reaching over to tousle Kylo’s hair, which she was finding her hand automatically drawn to whenever it was within reach.  

“Do you want to split a ration bar?” She asked, breaking the silence.

“Sure.” He rummaged around in the bag that had been knocked to the floor until he found one of Rey’s bars and broke it in two pieces, handing half of it up to her.

“Pass me the canteen?” She asked, chewing the cardboard-tasting bar.

He handed the canteen up to her, and she swallowed a gulp of water.

“Teach me something new,” Rey stated.

Kylo twisted his neck to look up at her. “What do you want to learn?”

“How did you knock me out on Takodana when you first met me?”

He laughed. “I’m not sure that I want you to have that skill.”

“Why? I’m sure that you could block it if I tried to use it on you.”

“That’s true, but what if you used it on my men at some point? 

Rey snorted in response.

“Okay, okay. Twist my arm,” he replied.

“It’s not like we have anything better to do right now.”

“Are you sure about that?” 

And there he went with the bedroom eyes look again. How did he do that so easily? It was like flipping a switch, Rey thought. 

“I thought that you wanted to ‘show me the ways of the Force’?”

“The last time that I taught you a new Force skill, you ended up coming into my head all the time.”

“That just evened things out. You were in my head plenty before that.”

“Fair enough.” He patted her arm, which she had left dangling over the edge of the dais.  “You’ll have to climb down here for it, though.”

Rey hopped off the dais and sat down on the floor next to Kylo. “Okay, now show me,” she said.

“Before I do anything, I need you to center yourself with the Force and look into my mind--it’ll be right at the surface. I’m going to put you under for just a couple of minutes, just so you can detect how it’s done.”

“Okay, got it.” She closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to gather the Force as much as the chamber in this temple would allow. When she reopened them, she found him staring intently at her face.

He raised his hand. She nodded to let him know that it was okay to proceed. 

Everything faded to black before he had even finished the wave of his hand. 

When she awoke, her head was slumped against his shoulder, and he was fidgeting with Revan’s mask. “How long was I out?” She asked.

“Not long. I don’t have a crono, but I doubt that you were out for longer than 10 minutes.”

“Can I try?” 

“Sure, but be very careful, unless you want me to be knocked out for the next 8 hours.”

Rey raised her hand and gazed into the eyes of her companion. She reached back through the Force and tugged on the energy the way that she had perceived Kylo as doing minutes earlier. Slowly, she swiped her hand down the length of his face.

Nothing happened.

“Try it again,” he encouraged.

Rey mentally re-grouped and raised her hand again. She picked out the tendrils of the Force in the way that she had seen Kylo do. She lowered her hand in front of his face again.

Again, nothing happened.

“There’s probably just some little nuance that you’re not picking up on,” Kylo consoled her. “Why don’t I demonstrate it again?”

“Yes, I think that would help.” She centered herself again and reached out to Kylo’s mind, determined that she would pick out every detail that she needed this time. OH! So that’s what...

Everything went black again as Kylo waved her to sleep for a second time. When she woke up this time, her head was resting on his knee as he sat cross-legged. He was stroking her hair.

“How long was I out that time?” She asked, sitting up.

“Same as last time.”

“Can I try again? I think I figured out what I missed the last time.”

“Go for it.”

Rey concentrated, focusing on Kylo and her control of the Force. This time, when she waved her hand in front of him, Kylo slumped over onto her shoulder.

“I did it!” She cried in excitement. She gently nudged his shoulder to see if she could wake him. His upper body felt like completely dead weight as it rested on hers. 

Rey waited a few minutes and tried to wake him again but still had no luck. Pinned in place and bored, eventually she fell asleep, as well, with the side of her head resting up against the side of Kylo’s.

***

Rey hadn’t shared a dream with Kylo since he had visited her after her trip to the Force Vision cave on Dagobah. This time, however, they weren’t antagonizing each other or otherwise trying to get under each other’s skin. In the dream, they were lying in bed, with Kylo on his back and Rey tucked into the crook of his arm, resting her head on his chest. He stroked her arm as she laid on her side, facing him.

They were both naked from the waist up, and Rey’s body tingled at the amount of skin-on-skin contact between her body and his. The dream room reeked of sweat and another smell that Rey couldn’t quite identify, but she was fairly sure what that smell implied had just happened in this particular dream, even if she wasn’t actively there to participate. The funny thing was that in the very recent past, Rey would have freaked out and verbally attacked him for pulling her into a dream such as this. But now, after having spent more time with him and starting to accept the fact that yes, despite everything he had done, she did both physically and emotionally desire him, this all just felt...nice. She was reminded yet again, that if this were a different place and a different time, she and Kylo would easily be lovers and who knows what more. She was really beginning to hate the fact that she and he were on opposite sides of this galactic war and coming from opposite sides of the Force. After having been alone for her entire life, she had finally found someone who challenged her and understood her, but for so many other reasons, he was the one person who she absolutely shouldn’t be with. It wasn’t fair.

Rey idly traced circles on his chest with her fingers. “Is this your dream or mine?” She asked.

“Mine. And you missed the best part.” He kissed the top of her head.

“I don’t know. This is pretty nice.”

“Nice, yes.” He smirked. For just a flash, the scene then changed to one of two bodies writhing, thrusting, and clutching bedsheets. “Nice,” he repeated and squeezed her arm.

Rey sighed, somewhat exasperated. “Can we just stay like this for a while?”

“Mmm-hmm, if that’s what you’d like.”

She nuzzled into his chest, wishing that neither the moment nor the dream would have to end.

***

Rey wasn’t sure how long they had been asleep when she eventually opened her eyes. They were no longer in the positions that they had fallen asleep in. For one thing, they were now lying on the floor with Rey draped over Kylo’s side in a position similar to the one from Kylo’s dream. The only major difference was that they were both still fully clothed. At some point, Kylo had gathered up the blankets that had been knocked off the dais and scrunched one up for a pillow and pulled a second one on top of them. She lifted her head and tilted it back to get a better look at Kylo; he was awake and watching her.

“Hey,” she said. “Sorry about that mind trick. Clearly, I overshot it a bit.”

“If that’s the worst mistake that you make with your Force training, I’ll be very impressed.” He stroked her hair.

Rey sat up, leaning against the platform. She noticed Revan’s mask laying on the floor next to her and picked it up. This was the first chance that she’d had to actually get a good look at it since they had gotten stuck in the chamber. “Your mask really does look like his. Was that intentional?”

“Nope. Just a coincidence.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Kylo joined her in sitting up against the platform.

“What happens when we get out of here?” Rey finally asked. The question had been bothering her more and more the longer that they had been trapped.

“I defect from the First Order so that you can bring me back to the Resistance where I’ll be put on trial and likely executed?”

“Ha, ha.” She traced the outer edge of the mask with her finger.

“I take you as my prisoner, and we return to the First Order, and I try to bargain with Snoke to keep you as my pet?”

“Try again.”

“Are you sure? I kind of like that one.” He put his arm around her and drew her closer to him.

“Pretty sure.” Rey looked down at the mask, feeling somewhat of a sense of disbelief that this inanimate relic was the cause of this whole situation.

“We head out of here in a truce, go our separate ways, and try our damn best to prevent Snoke or Luke from finding out the details of what happened in here?”

“That’s probably the smart answer.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “And what happens the next time that we meet?”

“I’m not sure,” Kylo said softly. “I think that depends on what happens during the rest of the time that we’re stuck in here.” With his finger, he traced the outline of her jaw then cupped her chin, bringing it so that she was looking directly at him.

Rey’s stomach fluttered. He lowered his face to hers, and she closed her eyes in anticipation. She felt him grab the mask from her hand, probably to fling it out of the way, and--

Rey felt herself tumble into another world. The connection that she and Kylo shared burned white hot, and she could feel every mental barrier that she had ever erected for him came tumbling down. Simultaneously, she was swimming in thoughts and memories that could only belong to Kylo. Anger, rage, and a long history of torture at the hands of Snoke. Visions of being a padawan training under Master Luke. Arguments about the restrictive code of the Jedi…

The connection closed again. Rey blinked, still holding the mask. Kylo had let go and was noticeably shaken.

“What the Force?” He asked, sweat beads forming on his forehead.

Rey nodded. “That was...intense. Are you okay?”

“Mostly. What just happened there?”

“How would I know? You’re the one who’s supposed to be the expert on this stuff.”

“I felt like every mental defense I’ve ever had was ripped away all at once.”

Rey’s eyes grew wide. “That’s what I felt, too.” An unsettling idea came into her head, and she hesitated a minute before speaking. “I think we should try it again. Try to hold on for longer though, if you can.” Still holding the mask, she offered it to Kylo.

Cautiously, he grabbed the other side and closed his eyes.

Rey felt the same sensation that she had a minute ago--as if every feeling that she had in her head was amplified and thrown together with whatever was going on in Kylo’s brain at that moment. She willed herself to hold onto the mask as she endured the sea of negative emotions--feelings of betrayal and hatred. Mistrust of Snoke. Bitterness towards the Resistance and his family. Regret and self-loathing over the way that he had butchered (his word) his father. 

Rey continued to hold on, even though she felt as if she were drowning in Kylo’s emotions.

Eventually, after several minutes, the shared thoughts, emotions, and memories found an equilibrium. Rey exhaled, feeling much calmer. This wasn’t bad--it was actually kind of nice, in a weird way. She was fairly certain now that what the mask was doing was causing her and Kylo’s Force Bond to blow open, for lack of a better term. Previously, when they connected, they would do so very carefully and compartmentalize the things that they didn’t want each other seeing. With this wide open connection, though, there was no hiding anything, and it was as if they were sharing a brain. A good analogy would be comparing a leaking faucet to a burst dam, Rey thought.

Slowly, she turned to Kylo, afraid of what of what he had likely seen in her own head. His face expressed bewilderment, which turned to a goofy grin as he released his grip on the mask.

“Are you okay?” Rey asked.

“Much better now, thank you.”  He drew her to his chest and held her for a minute. Tentatively, Rey hugged him back. The embrace lasted several minutes. Rey could feel Kylo’s breath on the top of her head. Eventually, he kissed her head and released her.

He smiled warmly. “If you can stand doing that one more time, I think that we should give it one more go. Only this time, let’s see if we can finally move that slab out of the way.”

Rey grinned. “I think that’s a great idea.”

She offered the mask back to him. This time, when he took his shared hold of it, the influx of emotions and thoughts was much less jarring to Rey. As soon as she had centered herself within her connection to Kylo, she began to concentrate on moving the slab again.

A few moments later, Rey heard a grinding noise and couldn’t contain the huge smile that she knew was filling her face. Kylo grabbed her free hand and squeezed it. Within seconds, the slab had moved into some sort of a slot within the wall of the chamber.

Without words and still holding her hand, Kylo helped Rey stand up. They quickly made their way out of the chamber that had been their prison for the past day, only releasing each other’s hands as they made their way into the sunlight outside of the temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So close on that kiss (and maybe more), right? I promise that it's coming, though! I've had a very specific plan for how I want their first kiss to go, and I had to "move the chess pieces" around to get them believably to that place. It just took a little longer to get there than I had anticipated and a few more "teasers" crept in than I had originally planned.
> 
> Now the big question is...who or what is waiting for them outside of the temple???


	9. Where this Fanfic gets its title

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yup, this is where this fic earns its title. Lots of plot happening in this chapter. I won't spoil any more of it.

“WHERE IS MY SHIP?!?”

Rey didn’t think that she had seen Kylo Ren this enraged since...ever?  She’d certainly heard stories of his temper, but up until this point, she had yet to actually witness his rage in person. The man who was stalking through the trees towards where she sat in front of the Millennium Falcon was a different person than the snarky and sometimes tender that she had just spent the past day trapped with inside the Sith Temple. They’d parted ways at the temple entrance, each heading towards their respective ships with both a bit of uncertainty and hope as to what would transpire the next time that they saw each other.

Rey hadn’t expected to see him again so soon.

“Kylo?” Rey addressed him cautiously. “What’s going on?”

“My ship is gone! Where’s Luke?”

“He’s inside the Falcon. But Kylo, you need to calm---”

He stormed over to the base of the Falcon’s loading ramp.

“Face me, Uncle!” Kylo bellowed, his hand on the hilt of his lightsaber. He still clutched Revan’s mask in his other hand.

Luke appeared at the top of the ramp, looking calm. “I’ve been waiting for you. I’m glad that you decided to join us.”

“Where is my ship?!? I know that you had something to do with it! And where are my Knights?” He took two furious steps up the ramp.

“It’s good to see you again, nephew.  Shall I call you Kylo or Ben?” Luke wore a serene grin on his face.

“Do not toy with me. Ben Solo has been gone for years. What did you do with my ship?”

“I sent it back to your First Order base, along with the two Knights that you set on me. They were more susceptible to suggestion from an old Jedi than I would have initially guessed.” He smiled broadly.

“So you left me stranded?” Kylo spat the words out.

“Not at all.” Luke took a few steps down the ramp. He now stood just a few feet in front of Kylo. “Rey tells me that you and she got along quite well during your entrapment, even despite the circumstances.”

Kylo instantly went from being rage-filled to appearing to be flustered. Rey felt herself blush--she wasn’t expecting Luke to share the post-temple de-briefing that she had just given him. She stood up from the stump where she had been sitting to stand next to Kylo.

“Uh, yeah. We get along pretty well,” he paused, “when she isn’t being a total pain in the ass.” Kylo looked over at Rey and smirked.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Luke replied. “I had a feeling that because of the connection that you share with Rey, you might be meeting up with us sometime on our journey. I’d like you ask you to consider joining us...as a guest.”

“You mean, as a prisoner,” Kylo scowled.

“You can choose to stay here, if you’d like. I’m sure that the First Order would eventually find you and retrieve you. You’d probably enjoy telling Snoke how you lost your ship, I assume.”

“What a wonderful alternative.” The rage was returning to Kylo’s face.

“Kylo, would you like to join us for a cup of tea? I just brewed a fresh pot. I’d like to explain my proposition to you.”

“I will listen to what you have to say,” he said begrudgingly. “But I make no promises.”

“Come, join us then.” Luke motioned for Kylo and Rey to follow him up the ramp into the Millennium Falcon.

***

As Rey and Kylo sat side-by-side on a sofa in the seating area of the Falcon, Kylo examined his surroundings with a mixture of sadness and bewilderment. Rey reached across their bond.

_ How are you doing? _

_ This is so...strange. I haven’t been onboard this ship in over 10 years. I never thought that I’d be here again. _

Rey glanced around to see if Luke was visible. Confirming that he was in the kitchenette fetching the tea, she reached out for Kylo’s hand and squeezed it. 

“I am being completely honest with you when I tell you that I have no idea what he has planned. He hasn’t been very forthcoming with me about this whole quest thing that he has us on,” she tried to reassure him. “And I promise that I will not let him hand you over to the Resistance.”

Luke entered the sitting area holding a tea set, and Rey pulled her hand back from Kylo’s, hoping that Luke hadn’t noticed.

“Tea?” He asked.

“No, thank you,” Kylo replied.

“I’ll take a cup. Thanks,” Rey reached for the mug that Luke had just poured. 

Luke sat down on a chair facing Rey and Kylo. He cupped a mug of tea in both hands.

“Before I go into my proposition, I want to address the bantha in the room here. You two have a Force Bond. And from what Rey has described to me, it’s an unusually strong Force Bond, based on my limited knowledge of how these bonds work. I think that it would greatly benefit you both if we spent some time in the Jedi Archives researching some historical examples of these bonds, their natures, and their powers,” Luke explained.

“Why would you want to help me?” Kylo asked.

“Kylo, I truly believe that you and Rey were meant to be allies. What exactly that means, I don’t know. If you  _ can’t _ find a way to work together--if you were to continue forward as enemies, I believe that you would both spend the rest of your days chasing each other and running away from each other. Why would you choose that, when you could work together and achieve so much more and have a so much more satisfying outcome to your lives? Basically, by helping you, I’m helping Rey.”

“I’m not joining the Resistance,” Kylo scowled.

“And I’m not asking you to. Although, if you chose that route, you would be an extremely valuable asset, and I am confident that we could get some kind of immunity deal in place for you in that instance.”

“I’m not joining the First Order,” Rey stated after having been silent for most of the conversation so far.

Luke added, addressing Kylo. “You know first-hand what actually fully falling to the Dark Side entails--the type of ‘trials’ that Snoke would put her through. I don’t think that any of us in this room want that for Rey.”

“No.” Kylo looked at the ground and then looked over at Rey. “Despite what she might have thought, I’ve never wanted that for Rey.”

“I know that it seems like you’re at an impasse right now, but I have every confidence that you and Rey will figure out the path that’s right for you both, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that path ultimately doesn’t involve the Resistance or the First Order,” Luke said gently.

Rey continued to sit quietly, not sure what to make of this conversation. Luke clearly had been planning for this encounter for a long time, but he hadn’t shared any of his thoughts with her about it. As someone who prided herself on her ability to take care of herself, the thought of Luke “protecting” her in his way was a bit irritating.

Kylo looked over at Rey and then at Luke. “So….Jedi Archives to research Force Bonds. I think I can spend a few days doing that. I will warn you, though, that eventually Snoke is going to come looking for me.”

Luke nodded. “I don’t know where your Knights were based out of, but I’m assuming that it will take them several days to travel back there. It will then take several days for any sort of a search party to reach this location, at which point, we’ll hopefully be wrapping up things on Coruscant. If you decide to part ways with us at that point, it will be easy for you to arrange transport from there. Sound okay?”

“I’m fine with that.” He clasped his hands together. “And you said that you had another proposition?”

“Yes. I’d like to...extend an offer of employment to you.”

“Doing what?” Kylo looked at him skeptically.

“Teaching Rey about the Force.”

“What?!?” Rey couldn’t hide her shock. “But you’re my teacher!”

A huge smile crossed Kylo’s face.

“Under my supervision, of course,” Luke added.

“But he’s so...dark. And I don’t want to be dark!” Rey protested.

“Of course. I would be honored to take on Rey as my Padawan.” Kylo was still grinning. “I’ve been trying to convince her to let me teach her...and she has a bit, but I am glad to finally making things official.” He reached over and fingered the Padawan braid in Rey’s hair.

“Let me explain,” Luke continued. “Rey, I don’t want to send you into a metaphorical battle half-prepared. There are some Force skills that I am quite confident in my ability to teach you, but there are other skills that I believe Kylo can teach you much more effectively.”

“Like what?” She asked.

“I’ll give you the most obvious example. Rey, you’re an emotional person. You’re extremely passionate about some things and can easily fly into a rage about others. As a Force user, do you think it would make more sense to suppress those emotions, or to learn to use them to your advantage?”

“Use them to my advantage, of course. But I thought that emotions like fear and anger led to the Dark side?”

“They can, if they’re not used correctly,” Luke replied.

“That’s not fair! You were always trying to get me to discard my emotions!” Kylo stated angrily.

“And look where that led you,” Luke sighed. “I’ve had a lot of time to think and research the Force these past years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I failed you, Kylo. And I don’t want to fail Rey the way that I failed you.” He looked Kylo in the eyes. “I am truly, truly sorry for that.”

“I don’t understand,” Rey interjected.

Luke leaned forward in his chair. “I apologize in advance for the crude analogy that I’m about to use and from any insinuations that it seems like I’m making, but I couldn’t really come up with a better comparison.” He turned to Rey. “When I sent you to the medbay on the Resistance base for your immunizations prior to this trip, there was an implant that I recommended be placed in your arm. Do you remember that?”

Rey blushed and nodded. “Yes.”

“It’s a contraceptive implant to prevent an unplanned pregnancy,” he stated bluntly.

Rey looked at her arm, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the fact that Kylo Ren was seated next to her on the sofa.

Luke continued. “I requested that you get this implant not because of anyone on the Resistance base--”

Kylo snorted, stifling a laugh.

“--but because of who I suspected we would be crossing paths with on our journey.” Luke looked directly at Kylo and then back at Rey. “I knew that I would potentially be putting you in a situation where you would be interacting on some level with a handsome young man that you share an intimate emotional and mental connection with. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for that connection to evolve into a physical one at this point, and for all I know, maybe it already has. Now, I could have just told you that Jedi are celibate and to not act on your desires, and left it at that. However, knowing the personalities of the two people involved, I felt that it was best that you be prepared going into the situation. Over the years, I’ve learned that you can’t stop human nature with a set of rules.”

Rey put her hand to her forehead in embarrassment. “And how does that relate to me learning Dark side skills?” She quickly added, “And nothing has happened yet.”

“Yet.” Kylo smirked. Rey punched him in the arm.

“Anyway...that’s a reasonable question, Rey. My thinking about the Force has evolved over the years. I no longer believe that there’s a strict Light side or Dark side and that you’re limited to using one side or the other. The Force doesn’t care. Use the Force in the way that you need to, as long as you don’t go to extremes. However, when you use Force skills that you’re not familar with, that’s what can lead you into trouble. Or inadvertently creating Force Bonds. Rey, do you understand that what I’m emphasizing here is that I want you to be prepared in ALL ways of the Force?”

“I understand.”

Luke turned to Kylo. “And for you, I am hoping that we’ll be able to help you find the balance that you so desperately need, rather than trying to snuff out part of who you are.”

The smirk was gone from Kylo’s face. If Rey wasn’t mistaken, his eyes were now glistening.

“If we’re successful, I hope that we might even be able to accomplish what your grandfather, my father, set out to do. Create balance in the Force,” Luke added. “Do I have you both on board with this?”

“Yes,” both Rey and Kylo replied in unison.

Kylo stood up and removed his belt. 

“What are you doing?” Rey asked.

“There’s a tracker in my belt that the First Order can use to locate me.” He walked over to the open loading ramp and tossed the belt down to the grass below. “I don’t know what my future holds, but I’m not going to make it any easier for them to track us.” 

“Are we ready to get going?” Luke asked.

“Yup. To Coruscant?” Rey slid into the pilot’s seat of the Falcon.

“To Coruscant.”

“Can I co-pilot?” Kylo asked tentatively.

“Absolutely,” Luke said, as he moved to the seat behind the two pilots’ chairs.

  
Within minutes, the Millennium Falcon entered hyperspace on its way to Coruscant and the Jedi Archives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so, sorry. I'd originally had a...progression in Rey and Kylo's relationship drafted, but the tone of that scene is a lot lighter (flirty Kylo!) than Luke's big speech, and it felt tacked on when I re-read it. But that means that it's coming very, very soon. I mean it this time.
> 
> Also, in my headcanon Kylo having some of his father's personality traits as he starts trending more "grey" becomes more obvious. I hope this is coming through?


	10. Finally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo get a little bit of alone time in the Millennium Falcon...or do they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know it's been a while, but I'm finally back! I stalled out because I had some trouble with this chapter and decided to take a break and write another fic that was in my head ("The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes"). And yes, the blatant callback in this chapter is intentional, and I hope it's not too clunky! Trying to marry your head canon with an actual fanfic can be difficult sometimes.

Except for the noticeable tension between Luke and Kylo, the journey to Coruscant started out uneventfully. Rey tried to make small talk to lighten the mood, but her attempts at conversation were largely met with one-word answers from her male traveling companions. Finally, with the ship on auto-pilot, Kylo got up and left, heading to one of the rear cabins of the Millennium Falcon. Rey presumed that he was heading to the ‘fresher.

“Well, he sure is the life of the party,” Rey sighed once Kylo was out of earshot.

“He’ll get over it,” Luke assured her. “He has a lot to process right now.”

Rey spent the next few minutes leaning back in the pilot’s chair, glancing through a holobook on the history of Coruscant. She had never been to a big city before and was both nervous and excited at the prospect. 

“I feel like I’m going to be underdressed for Coruscant,” Rey muttered, looking at her dirty and worn tunic and leggings.

Luke laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ll pick up some new clothes when we get into the city. The last thing that I want us to do is to draw attention to ourselves.”

She spent a few more minutes skimming the holobook, nervously glancing towards the cabin door every so often.

Sensing her thoughts, Luke assured her, “I’m sure that he’s fine, Rey.”

“I could maybe feel sorry for him… I mean, we talked about a lot of different things when we were stuck in that temple, and I was starting to see him differently…  But for him to go off and sulk like this, it feels like a huge step backwards.”

Luke grinned. “If it would make you feel better, feel free to go back and check on him. We’ll be on autopilot for a while up here.”

Rey hopped up and set her holobook down on the chair. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

 

***

 

Rey made her way to the back of the Falcon. The ‘fresher door was standing open, so she could tell that Kylo wasn’t still in there, even if that had been his original destination. She poked her head into the bunkroom, where her eyes immediately met Kylo’s. He was sitting on a bunk with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and a crate at his feet.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

“Sure,” Kylo nodded, taking a swig of whiskey directly from the bottle.

Rey sat down on the bunk next to him. She noted that the crate on the floor was filled with unopened whiskey bottles. “Is it that bad?” she asked.

“What?”

“You hate this situation so much that you’re back here getting drunk.”

“No,” Kylo snickered. “My fath-- Han used to always keep a spare crate of high end Corellian whiskey hidden in the cargo hold back here. He used to find it...helpful when dealing with officials and other regulatory types sometimes.”

“It’s been here all this time?  The Falcon first showed up on Jakku, at least six years ago, I think.”

“I know,” he grinned. “I’m amazed that no one discovered it in all that time. I’ll give Han one thing--he was good at hiding things when he needed to.”

Kylo offered the bottle to Rey. Hesitantly, she took it and took a swig. She had never tasted alcohol before, and the taste made her throat burn. 

She grimaced. “And this is the good stuff?”

“Yup. You could probably fetch a couple hundred credits per bottle for this on the black market.”

“And we’re sitting back here drinking it...why?”

“Because we can.” He drank from the bottle again then offered it back to Rey. When she hesitated, he added, “If you haven’t developed a taste for it, it’ll start to taste better after the first few drinks.”

Rey took another swig. It still tasted like...burning. She made a face again.

Kylo placed his arm around her shoulder. “So how about that game of ‘I never’ now? I can’t imagine that either of us will need to be using our piloting skills for a while.”

“You’re on,” Rey replied. “I am looking forward to seeing your drunk ass stagger back to Luke when we’re done while I’ll be completely sober.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Rey grabbed the bottle and eyed Kylo, trying to decide how hard she wanted to play for this first round. She decided to take it somewhat easy with a statement that wouldn’t be too personal but would still force him to drink. She declared, “I’ve never made my own lightsaber.”

Kylo grabbed the bottle, rolled his eyes, and took a drink. 

“I’ve never kissed a Stormtrooper,” he stated and handed the bottle back to Rey.

She rolled her eyes and drank, feeling annoyed that the gloves had come off so quickly. 

“I’ve never been drunk,” Rey locked eyes with Kylo, handing him the bottle.

Kylo took the bottle and drank. He thought for a minute. “I’m going to take one for the team on this. I’ve never had a member of the opposite sex fondle my chest.” He drank again then watched Rey for her reaction. 

She glared at him, not reaching for the bottle.

“No, really? That’s what I thought, but it’s good to get confirmation,” he smirked.

“I’ve never been naked in front of a member of the opposite sex,” she smirked back at him.

Kylo just raised his eyebrows at her. She gave him a confused look in response.

“Really?” she asked. “But you’ve…”

“You don’t need to be completely naked to do that.” He leaned closer to her and spoke softly in her ear. “There is, of course, a first time for everything.”

Rey was instantly overcome by that uncomfortable-but-excited feeling that she’d had several times before when Kylo had gotten close to her in the temple. She felt herself blush.

Kylo waited until Rey had made eye contact with him again before making his next declaration. “I’ve never had an orgasm.” He took a huge swig from the bottle, watching Rey the entire time.

Rey clasped her hands and looked at her feet, embarrassed.

Kylo capped the bottle and set it down at his side. “You  _ do _ need a teacher.” 

He started to lean in towards Rey. Rey closed her eyes in anticipation. She felt his breath on her lips and--

A loud knock on the doorframe to the cabin jolted both Rey and Kylo out of the mood. Luke was standing in the doorway. He cleared his throat loudly, in case his knock hadn’t made his point.

“Rey, we’ve got some blinking lights on the console that I think you need to take a look at.” Luke shot each of them knowing looks.

“Um, right. Yes, I’ll go take a look at those,” Rey stuttered as she got up. 

Kylo flopped back onto the bed as Rey followed Luke out of the room.

 

***

 

When she reached the cockpit, Rey found that Luke was indeed right--lights were blinking and warnings were beeping, and clearly, all was not right with the Falcon. 

“I think it’s the negative power coupling,” Rey guessed.

“Can you fix it?” Luke asked.

Rey nodded. “Yeah, I’ll need to replace some of the wiring and weld the valves.” She hopped out of the pilot seat and found the maintenance cabinet and retrieved the tools and wiring that she’d need. 

 

***

As Rey was finishing welding up the last valve, Kylo reappeared. While he watched, she tried to throw a lever to re-engage the system but instead found the lever frozen. Kylo reached in, trying to help move the lever. Frustrated, Rey rolled her eyes at him.

“Hey Scavenger, I was just trying to help,” Kylo said defensively.

“Please stop calling me that.” Rey tried to pull the handle again.

“Sure, Rey.”

Rey sighed and turned to him. “You’re very frustrating sometimes.”

“I know. I really am. You’re coming around on me, though.”

She let go of the lever and rubbed sore hand. “That’s true. When you’re not behaving like a monster.”

“Monster? But what if I was your monster?” Kylo took her hand and started rubbing it.

Rey blushed, feeling the nervousness from a little while earlier creep back into her emotions. “Stop that,” she said, trying to pull her hand from Kylo’s.

“Stop what?” He continued to rub her hands.

“My hands are dirty,” she stammered.

Kylo raised his eyebrows. “My hands are dirty, too.” He kissed her hand and looked into her eyes. “Don’t be afraid, I feel it, too.”

“I’m not afraid,” Rey looked away, betraying her emotions.

Kylo placed his hand on the wall just above Rey’s head. He leaned closer to her face. “You’re conflicted about me because you know how alike we are, in spite of the things that I’ve done. I’m a temptation to you.”

“You don’t tempt me.” Rey lied.

“You could use a little more temptation in your life,” he leaned closer. Rey felt his breath on her face.

“No, and I just want to fix--”

Kylo pressed his lips to Rey’s, silencing her. He moved forward, pressing her back into the wall and placing his free hand on her hip. Their lips parted and their tongues began to explore each other’s mouths.

Rey’s hand flew to the back of Kylo’s head, and she began to run her fingers through his hair. She was instantly reminded of the vision that she’d had in the cave on Dagobah and wondered if that was a premonition--making this encounter completely inevitable. She decided not to think about it too much for now.

Kylo broke the kiss, moving his mouth to Rey’s neck, where he started to tease her with his tongue and light nibbles. Rey gasped, drawing a smirk from Kylo. 

“You’re enjoying this,” he whispered. His hands moved to Rey’s buttocks and pressed her towards him, while not moving himself. She was trapped firmly between Kylo and the wall. Something was pressing into her stomach, and it took Rey a moment to realize that what she felt was Kylo’s hardening erection. She didn’t know if she should feel embarrassed--it seemed like a rather intimate thing to be feeling, but Kylo didn’t seem to mind as his mouth was back on hers, his tongue swirling with her own.

Rey allowed herself to feel lost in the kiss. Her one, aborted kiss with Finn had felt nothing like this.  Finn didn’t make her feel strange sensations in her abdomen and between her legs when they were physically close. And even if it felt like what she was doing was wrong, she reminded herself that Master Luke had more or less given her and Kylo a green light, in a way. 

“Hey, it looks like you were able to fix that negative power--  Oh.”

Startled, Kylo broke away from Rey. A somewhat surprised and amused-looking Luke was standing in the entrance to the cabin where he and Rey were situated.

“Um, yeah,” Rey’s face felt hot and her ears were burning. “Just needed to replace the wiring and re-weld one of the valves, like I thought,” she said, sheepishly.

Kylo suddenly found the floor to be very interesting.

Luke addressed the embarrassed couple. “Just to give you both a heads up, I booked us a couple of rooms at a hotel for when we reach Coruscant, which shouldn’t be more than a few hours from now. I did book you both a suite with two bedrooms and a shared living space. I thought that you might want to...work on Rey’s training...while we’re there.”

Rey feigned a quick recovery. “Thanks, Master Luke!” she said cheerfully. She followed Luke out of the cabin back to the cockpit and motioned for Kylo to join her.

Kylo ran his hand through his hair, paused, then shuffled after Rey and Luke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me! Updates should come more regularly unless/until I get stalled again.


	11. It begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang arrives on Coruscant. Things get a little touchy-feely between Kylo and Rey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! We have the beginnings of some actual smut here.

Rey had never seen anything like Coruscant in her entire life. As she guided the Millennium Falcon into a Resistance-friendly landing port, she felt wistful. When she’d first flown over Takodana with Han, Chewie, Finn, and BB-8, she remembered thinking that she hadn’t realized that there was so much green in the entire galaxy. Then, when she’d gone to Ahch-To to find Luke, she’d been blown away by the fact that the entire planet was an ocean that was dotted with green islands. Water had been such a luxury on Jakku, and yet Ahch-To’s surface was completely covered by water. Coruscant was a whole other story, further reminding Rey of how little of life she had experienced on Jakku. One city block of Coruscant’s high rise apartment buildings probably could contain the entire population of Jakku.

Luke guided the trio along a skywalk to the hotel where he had booked their rooms while aboard the Falcon. As he’d promised, Kylo and Rey had a suite with separate bedrooms and a shared living area while Luke had his own room down the hall from theirs. Kylo called first shower (a real water shower, not a sonic shower!) and disappeared into the ‘fresher while Rey headed out to the balcony and leaned on the rail, losing herself as she took in the surrounding buildings and various speeders and other craft that whizzed between them. She hadn’t realized how long she had stood out there, staring, when she heard Kylo’s voice behind her.

Kylo stood in the doorway to the balcony, wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist. Of course, he was wearing only a towel. His broad shoulders were even more evident when they weren’t covered in multiple layers of clothing, his torso narrowing down in a V-shape to his slender waist. A thin line of hair ran from his navel down the length of his lower abdomen, disappearing under the towel. His bare chest was toned, but not overly muscular, and covered in various scars. Rey recognized the huge star-shaped scar on his side as likely being from Chewie’s bowcaster. There was another pink scar on his shoulder--a continuation of the mark that she’d given him with her lightsaber to the face; she hadn’t realized that she’d branded his shoulder, as well. There were other scars, too numerous to count without staring. Rey surmised that these must have been the result of other battles or possibly even punishment from Snoke. She shuddered at that last thought, not understanding why Kylo stayed with someone who abused him the way that Snoke clearly did.

“Like the view?” he asked.

“Yes,” Rey choked. She blushed then looked away. She looked back, determined to make eye contact with her temporary “roommate”. Recovering, she added, “I’ve never been in a city like this.”

Kylo smirked. He joined her in leaning against the balcony rail. “The shower is free now, if you want it.”

“Thanks!” Rey stole one last glance at Kylo’s chest and headed inside.

 

***

 

Not used to the luxury of a hot water shower, Rey took her time in the ‘fresher. When she was finished but still inside the ‘fresher, she changed into a clean version of the gray outfit that she was wearing when she arrived on Ahch-To. She had given a half-second’s worth of thought of parading in front of Kylo in a towel like he had done for her, but she was nervous about where that might possibly lead at this point and opted to change into her clean clothes in privacy. Instead of her usual three-bun hairstyle, Rey elected to pull her hair back into a single bun, which felt like a more sophisticated style for a place like Coruscant.

Rey emerged from the ‘fresher to find Kylo exploring the holovids that were available in the shared living area. “Find anything good?” she asked.

“There are options for a holovid-and-chill night here. Yes.” He smirked.

Rey didn’t understand what was so funny, but before she could think of anything else to say, there was a knock at their door. 

Not surprisingly, it was Luke. “Are you both ready to go shopping?” he asked. Luke handed each of them a small bundle of credits and led them out of the hotel towards the shopping district. Luke pointed Rey towards a shop with fashions aimed at young women and took off looking for a men’s clothing shop with Kylo.

 

***

 

Rey was embarrassed to admit this, but she had never been in an actual women’s clothing shop before. She typically had bartered for garments when she was living as a scavenger on Jakku and occasionally hand-stitched a few things together herself with her meager sewing skills. The variety and selection of garments in this store dedicated to clothing was overwhelming. Thankfully, the sales girl was nice and helped Rey select a few changes of clothes that reflected current Coruscant fashions without being too overly trendy. The last thing that Rey wanted to do here was to stand out. 

Standing in the dressing room and staring at herself in the mirror, Rey marveled at how different she looked from her days on Jakku. Each outfit change gave her a new, fictional persona in her head. She certainly didn’t look like a scavenger any more. Rey smiled at that thought.

Rey gathered up her new outfits and stopped off at a rack to grab a few new pieces of underclothing, then carrying her armload up to the register.

As the saleslady rang up her purchases, she paused at the underclothing and gave Rey and eye. “Are you sure that  _ these _ are what you want? I saw that boyfriend of yours. We do have some...less plain options.”

Rey felt her face turn bright red. The saleslady thought that Kylo Ren was her boyfriend? She guessed that it made sense, but how had the woman even seen her with Kylo? Rey glanced out the front door of the shop and thought that the woman must have had eagle eyes to both see them and draw the conclusion that they were a couple...which they weren’t.

The woman sensed Rey’s discomfort and leaned across the counter. “New relationship then?” She smiled warmly at Rey. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything until you were all paid up, but while you were in the dressing room, he stopped in and purchased a few things for you.” She held up a bag that had been sitting behind the counter. “He’s got good taste,” the saleslady said with a knowing grin. “So, knowing that, are you  _ sure _ that you just want those plain, white cotton things?”

Rey hesitated. If she picked out a few things that were...less plain, Kylo wouldn’t know about it unless she showed him. And she wouldn’t be showing him anything unless she was completely comfortable with it and wanted to do so. She was ridiculously physically attracted to him, and he was pretty bold about the fact that he knew that. Granted, he’d made it known to her that he was attracted to her, as well. He was as sexy as he was infuriating, and she was sharing a hotel room suite with him. Kriff. She might as well just pick out a few pieces of lingerie; just having them in her possession wasn’t going to hurt anyone. 

Rey darted over to the lingerie section and hurriedly picked out a few lacy items in her size and brought them back to the saleslady. The woman finished ringing up her purchases and handed her both shopping bags--the clothes that Rey had selected and whatever items Kylo had picked out for her. 

“Now, he specifically said that he doesn’t want you opening the bag from him until he says so,” she instructed Rey with a wink. “Got it?”

Rey smiled and nodded. “Got it.”

 

***

 

Rey arrived back at the hotel suite to find that Kylo had not surprisingly made it back first. He’d already changed into one of his new outfits--a dark gray tunic cinched at the waist with a leather belt that he wore over black pants. Not surprisingly, he looked good.

“Hungry?” He asked.

Rey realized that she was staring. “Huh? What?”

“Are you hungry?  Luke decided to go back to his room to crash for the night. I was thinking about maybe ordering some room service. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“Dinner, yes.” Rey regained her composure. “Yes, thank you.”

“Do you know what you want to eat?”

_ Yes. _ She thought, then looked away embarrassed, when she saw the look that Kylo gave her, making her realize that she had projected her thought. “Um, no preference. Honestly, anything that isn’t rations will probably taste good.”

“I’ll surprise you, then. I promise I’ll order something good.” He walked over to the datapad on the wall and punched in a dinner order. Kylo then turned his attention back to Rey and the shopping bags that she was still carrying. “I see that the woman at the boutique was able to follow instructions.”

“Yes, thank you,” she paused, “I think.”

“Oh, you’ll be thanking me.” He took a step towards her.

“You’re that sure?”

“Pretty sure,” he closed the distance between them in three long steps. 

Her back wasn’t pressed to a wall, but other than that, they were nearly in the same position that they were in earlier in the day. He placed his hands on her upper arms. Rey closed her eyes in anticipation, and seconds later, his lips were on hers again. She opened her mouth and dropped the bags that she still had in hand. Her hands flew to the back of his head, and she ran her fingers through his hair. She could never get enough of the feeling of his hair in her hands. 

Slowly and carefully, Kylo took small steps to push her backwards. Rey backed up until she felt the back of her knees hit something--one of the sofas in shared living area. Only briefly breaking their kiss, he guided her down onto the sofa. He shifted the position of his hands so that one now rested on her hip and the other slipped under her tunic. Rey felt a jolt of electricity as she felt the bare skin of his hand on her bare torso as it slowly made its way upwards. His hand rested on her covered breast--her support garment still in place. As an almost involuntary reaction, she grasped his hair tighter, pulling him in even closer to her, and then drawing attention to her inexperience when her teeth crashed against Kylo’s. 

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Shh… Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. He kissed her neck. Then he nibbled lightly at her neck. And now, now he was using his tongue. She tilted her head back and let him work his way down her neck to her collarbone. Gently, he guided her backwards so that she was now lying on her back on the sofa, and he was more or less on top of her. His hand worked its way under the support garment that bound her breasts, and Rey squirmed a little underneath him.

Kylo paused his kissing/licking/nibbling/fondling and addressed the nervous and excited girl. “You’re wearing too many clothes.” 

“You first,” Rey replied.

“Fine.” He rose up onto his knees and whipped off his tunic in one smooth motion. He dropped it to the floor over the back of the sofa. “Happy?”

“Yes.” She reached up to run her hands over his chest, which she had wanted to do ever since she had seen him strutting around in that towel several hours earlier.

“Not yet.” Kylo grabbed her wrists. “Yours needs to come off, too.” He eyed her tunic.

“Fine.” She sat up but then hesitated for a moment. The pause gave Kylo all of the time that he needed to grab the hem of her tunic and start to pull it over her head. Before she realized what she was doing, Rey raised her arms and wriggled, helping Kylo remove her garment, which soon joined his on the floor. 

Instead of resuming his physical onslaught, Kylo sat back on his knees and stared at her, making Rey feel suddenly self-conscious. He leaned forward, and Rey thought that he was going to kiss her again. To her surprise, however, his hands went to the elastic holding the bottom of her support garment in place, and he pulled that up and over her breasts. Without thinking, Rey raised her arms, and in a second, that garment joined the others behind the sofa.

Again, Kylo just stared. Rey would have wondered if he had never seen a topless woman in person before, but she knew that wasn’t the case. Feeling even more self-conscious now, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Kylo frowned.

“You’re staring.” Rey stated the obvious.

For the first time since they’d checked into their hotel suite, Kylo dropped his air of confidence. “I know. I can’t help it. You’re...you’re beautiful.” He leaned forward and kissed Rey again, easing her back onto her back. “I can’t believe that this is finally happening.” He went back to kissing her neck while his hand massaged her now-bare breast.

Rey couldn’t believe that this was happening, either. Although, in her case, it was more a matter of the fact that she was half naked with a man who she had considered an enemy only 24 hours prior, and on top of that she had been more physically intimate with this enemy than she ever had with anyone else in her life. Granted, said enemy was annoyingly sexy, and there was, of course, the fact that the Force had bonded them together mentally.

“This just seems...wrong,” she blurted out.

He paused and looked at her, alarmed. “Do you actually want me to stop? Or are you just nervous?”

Rey knew that she was at a crossroads. She could stop this right now, reject him, and likely put an end to this weirdness between her and Kylo for the foreseeable future, or she could give into what every cell in her body was telling her.

“Don’t stop.”

Kylo looked up, met her gaze, and smiled. Given outright permission, his kisses and hands became more frenzied. Rey became aware of Kylo’s increasingly hard erection as it pressed into her. She let instinct take over and began to grind against him, to which Kylo uttered a soft moan. She suddenly became aware of the feeling of wetness that had emerged between her legs as her arousal grew.

Rey tried to get inside of Kylo’s head to see what he was thinking but found herself too overwhelmed by the physical sensations that she was experiencing to focus enough to use their bond. 

“Just relax,” he told her, obviously sensing what she was trying to do. He kissed her collarbone, then made a trail of kisses down to her breast where he began to tease her nipple with his mouth. Rey found herself arching her back into the sensation in response.

Kylo’s hand that had been on her breast made its way down her torso and began to pull at the drawstring on her pants, undoing it. 

Three loud knocks on the suite door interrupted the moment.

“Room service!” a voice behind the door called out.

“Fuck!” Kylo shouted.

Gingerly, he got up off of Rey and off the sofa. “Wait for me in the bedroom,” he croaked.

Rey stifled a giggle at his reaction and stumbled into one of the two bedrooms and sat on the bed. She was just able to see Kylo pull a cart of covered food dishes and a bottle of something in an ice bucket into the room, tip the service person, and nearly slam the door. 

“Don’t you want to eat?” she called to him.

“We can eat later. The food isn’t going anywhere.”

Kylo shuffled into the bedroom. His large erection was painfully obvious beneath his pants.

“Lay down,” he instructed her.

Rey did as she was told, scooting up on the bed and laying against the mound of pillows that rested against the wall.

Kylo grabbed the fabric at the ankles of her pants and yanked. “These are coming off.” 

Rey lifted her hips, and two tugs later, her pants sat in a heap on the floor. He slid next to her on the bed and pulled down on the waistband of her panties. Within seconds, those were on the floor, too. Her eyes met Kylo’s, waiting for his guidance.

“Remember how you’d said that you’ve never had an orgasm?” He asked.

Rey nodded.

“That’s about to change.” 

Laying on his side, he kissed her on the mouth, while his free hand slid down to the folds between her legs. Gently, he began to finger her nub causing Rey to gasp into his mouth. She had touched herself before, but Kylo’s touch felt completely different from her own, not to mention the fact that she was already more aroused than she had ever felt before in her life. She clutched at his back as he worked on her, his two fingers rubbing in a steady rhythm and periodically changing up to a swirl. 

As Rey felt her entire body begin to tense, she grasped at the duvet covering the bed with both hands. She gave up on trying to kiss Kylo back as the only thing she was capable of doing with her mouth now was gasping and panting. He propped himself on one elbow, watching her facial expressions intently. 

“Can I slip a finger in--?” he began.

“You can do whatever you want,” she blurted out.

Kylo smiled. Rey then felt a new sensation of pressure down between her legs as he was now working in and out of her with his index finger. He shifted his position on the bed so that he could still work her clit with the fingers on one hand while using his finger on the other hand.

Rey pressed back against the pillows. The tension within her body was mounting. She began to feel lightheaded and her extremities started tingling. A moan escaped her lips.

“I’m going to add a second finger,” Kylo whispered.

“Okay,” Rey gasped, her head spinning.

The second finger increased the sensations that Rey was feeling and added in a touch of pain--like a tight muscle that was being stretched. Even with the slight bit of pain, the feeling of pleasure was nearly overwhelming. Kylo was doing  _ something _ in there that she couldn’t identify, and it was causing her hips to jerk uncontrollably at his touch.

Just when the build up within her body was more than she thought that she could stand, Kylo’s fingers pushed her over the edge, causing her to spasm and clutch at the duvet as if she needed to hold onto it for her life. Kylo eased up on both the pace and pressure that he had been using, guiding her through her climax. 

When the last wave subsided, Kylo scooted up next to Rey on the bed, and encouraged her to put her arms around him. She laid there snuggled up next to him as he stroked her hair and kissed her head.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked her.

“Mmmm-hmmm,” she murmured, not trusting her mouth to form actual words yet.

 

***

 

After a few minutes, Kylo started to sit up. 

“I need to head to the bathroom for a minute,” he explained, starting to get up.

“What’s up?” Rey asked.

“Um, well, I’ve been left with a rather...uncomfortable situation here. I didn’t want to push things with you this early on, but…  There’s something I need to address.”

Rey took a second to digest his words, then her eyes widened. “Can I um, help you out with that? It’s the least I could do after what you did for me.”

Kylo beamed and laid back down next to Rey. “I would love that. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to…just because…”

Feeling emboldened, Rey slid her hand down the waistband of Kylo’s pants and underwear. For the first time in her life, she was touching the erect penis of another human being. 

“Oh…” Kylo moaned.

Rey tugged at the waistband of his pants and grinned. “Remember how you said that you’d never been naked in front of a member of the opposite sex before? That needs to change now.”

“If you insist,” he replied and shimmied both his pants and boxers down to mid-thigh, letting Rey yank them off the rest of the way.

Rey was now face-to-face, figuratively speaking, with Kylo Ren’s fully erect cock. She didn’t have much basis for comparison, but it seemed awfully large.  If two fingers kind of hurt, she hated to think how much it would hurt if things eventually progressed the way that it seemed like they were going. She could only hope that whatever pleasure the act brought, it would make the accompanying pain worth it.

“I promise, I’ll go as slowly and gentle as you need,” Kylo reassured her, sensing her reaction to seeing his member.

“I’m not worried,” she lied.

“Sure, you’re not,” he chuckled. “But I will do everything that I can to make it as enjoyable as possible for you.”

“I know,” she smiled.

Tentatively, she ran her hand down his length, then back up, softly feeling the head. Underneath the soft skin at the surface, it was so much harder than she imagined that it would be. But, she guessed, that was sort of the point. Gently, she started pumping in an up-and-down motion.

“You can go a bit more firmly than that. You’re not going to break it,” he chided her. “Well, you won’t break it unless you’re  _ really _ rough with it.”

Rey increased the pressure slightly. Kylo let out a relaxed sigh.

She continued to pump away and could feel him growing even harder under her touch. 

“Mmmm…” he moaned, placing his hand on hers and demonstrating exactly how much pressure to use. Soon, she felt a contracting sensation within him and hesitated for a second.

“Keep going!” he grunted.

Rey complied, and soon his penis was spurting a thick, whitish substance all over her hand. Kylo pulled her towards him and kissed her aggressively on the lips.

“You are amazing,” he told her with a contented grin. “Why don’t we clean up a bit, and then finally eat something? I’m starving.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo finally gets a little ways into Rey's pants! There will be more smut coming soon.
> 
> Just a heads up--I had inspiration strike and want to write a few more chapters for my *other* fan fic, so I'll be updating that one next. I will probably alternate updating each fics until I run out of ideas for that one. (The other one isn't mapped out as well as this one...although that one is more smut-based, anyway.)


	12. On hiatus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On hiatus, for now

So....I'm putting this fic on hiatus for now. I sincerely apologize to anyone who has been continuing to read and looking for a real update. Ugh, right?

I've been struggling with writer's block on this piece because one of the "twists" that I was going to introduce got nullified by Bloodline. I'm also realizing that my plot here is not very original, which has kind of killed my inspiration.

The good news is that I've learned a lot about my writing process for fiction. I like to be able to go back and tinker with chapters until I'm happy with the whole piece. That doesn't work very well when you're posting chapters as you write. I also know that as a reader, I like to be able to count on regular updates to the fics that I'm reading. So, with that in mind, I've been working on a mid-length (~12 chapters) Reylo fic that I'm hoping to have done in a few weeks. I think that this approach works better for me as a writer and should hopefully work a lot better for you all as readers. ;)

Thanks for sticking with me, and I will update *this* fic if/when I get re-inspired for this particular plot.


End file.
